3GPP Release-12 RAN Enhancements

The ones which fascinates a lot are :-

Improved local area mobility using Dense Radio Network
ProSe/D2D - Device to Device Proximity services

Dense Radio Network

D2D Service

5G Technology Candidate :- Access Optimization

Traditional concept of having a Uplink / Downlink channels irrespective of TDD/FDD mode is the major  point that defines how the spectrum is well utilised and also the ability for further aggregation.

3GPP RAT development team is working on existing Radio Network Coding to enhance the way of using the Channel without decoupling Logically (TDD) or band wise (FDD).

With this improvement, the Career Aggregation will be simpler than before and bandwidth can be provided on demand depending upon the availability with simple access procedure across different bands/RATs.

Figure 1 :- Simplified Career Aggregation Plan [by ETSI]

LTE - Data Rates and UE Class

Data Rates and UE Class for LTE Technology is provided below....

Figure 1 : Data Rates for Downlink in Mbps

Figure 2 : Data Rates for Uplink in Mbps

Figure 3 : LTE UE Class

Figure 4 : LTE Average Throughput - Cell Level

Figure 5 : Latency Comparison for 2G-3G-4G Systems

Figure 6 : LTE MaximumThroughput - Cell Level

5G Technology Objectives

BIG DATA analysis has proven that it can add value to existing business and provide innovative solutions. This leads to revolutionize the business ideas across globe.

It requires a natural partner in terms of broadband connectivity on the fly to help business community in thriving the world economy. ICT Community's main aim to serve this requirement and  empower the growing demands of rural communities. This relationship outlines required objectives for 5G Technologies as stated below.

• 5G Networks will be able to serve 100 billion connections.
• 10 Gb/s will be the data rate per user,
• 5G Netwoks will have new RAT + LTE+LTE-A+WiFi+GSM+HSPA.
• 5G Netowkrs may serve 3 folds of world population in M2M connections.

Figure-1 : 5G Network A theoretical view

Figure-2 : 5G Service Objective Cube

FarEastTone to have APT700 for LTE by Ericsson

http://sunilmobiletelecom.blogspot.in/2014/08/apt700-700-mhz-band-auction-for-mobile.html
http://sunilmobiletelecom.blogspot.in/2014/10/advantages-of-700-mhz-spectrum-over.html


In my previous posts , I have highlighted the APT700's momentum, now...

FarEasTone of Taiwan is teaming up with Ericsson to launch LTE with APT700.
APT700 becoming highly in demand at various APAC & LATAM markets.

It helps the operator to have the capacity to serve more customers and provide extensive indoor coverage quality , all these at the very same network gear cost of any 2300/2100/1800 band LTE network.

SRVCC - Single Radio Voice Call Continuity : Is it possible in India ?

Most of the existing operators having heavily invested CS Core network elements across the entire country. Launching IMS Core as a replacement for these network elements is not a easy jobs from the economical and practically not that easy.

Geography & Customer base are huge with highly complex interconnects across the nation.

SRVCC requires top quality GERAN/UTRAN .

Which is still a question mark....due to many factors including the above pointed Geo + Population.

Even-though Reliance JIO starting with LTE + IMS Core , it may not have a strong target GERAN/UTRAN network. I don't think that there is a partner to do so, instead they may opt for CSFB which helps RJIO and its partner in more better way in terms of implementation.

The 1800 MHz they have acquired is not for GERAN/UTRAN instead they may use it for LTE-FDD Network.

So conclusively, SRVCC may not come to India...

Figure 1 :- SRVCC Concept Diagram from Radisys Whitepaper

SRVCC Background :-

With IMS as core (already deployed), SRVCC become the ultimate choice for Japanese and US mobile operators to provide multimedia services. It was easy for them to go for SRVCC instead of troublesome CSFB ( only in congested areas) with complicated requirements in terms of tecchnical capabilities at UE & Network.

Figure 2 :- SRVCC ecosystem

Figure 3 :- SRVCC Evolution Path

SK Telecom - South Korea : LTE Network Evolution Strategy Diagram

SK Telecom is the leading operator in South Korea with close to 16 Million Subscriber. Which is 56% of their total customer base.

SK has 47% share in the total south Korean LTE Subscriber base i.e. 33.83 Million.

• CA
• Multiband CA
• FDD+TDD CA
• Repeaters

           etc....

UK-DCMS proposal may Lead to "Mexican standoff " between operators and can hamper service quality

Recently UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) proposed to use "National Roaming" Concept to over come the coverage issues (Black-spots).

Vodafone-UK gone ballistic over this proposal as usual like whenever it observes something abnormal in terms "technological" aspects. Unfortunately it is forced to do the same everywhere where ever it operates around the world.  :-))


The reason which upset the RED GIANT is , technically it is going to be a suicidal attempt to  create a "NR" hotspots in between big strong coverages to cover those "Black Holes". DCMS's intention is good but the result such NR attempt will create huge issue in mobility aspects of customers. Even CDR-Call Dropt Rate will increase manifolds than before. As sensed by Vodafone this move will hamper existing happy customers also and the trouble extends to everybody who gets partnered in this effort. At th end It will be like a "Mexican standoff " between all parties.

Whereas UK-DCMS is not part of it and laughs at the stand...

I am really surprised at DCMS's proposal, always UK remained as one of the standard 
reference point for many countries and regularities around the world.

I will post some of the possible situations as picture in coming days as time permits.

I had similar situation when I was handling the technical part for the 2G/3G-ICR implementation for major OPCOs in GCC & India. 


Scenario-1 or 2 : A designated area is defined as "NR" Coverage, So that coverage border management is perfectly ok with relevant mobility parameters etc.

Scenario-3 : When a customer moves from West to North East / South East, hee needs to travel via many black holes / blind spots of Operator-A. If A is forced to use the NR to cover those black holes then the entire network will go for a toss in terms of performance of mobility & calls/session continuity etc. I have never seen a managed service operator can agree for this situation without demanding exclusions in key performance areas of SLA.

The best way forward is looking at Small/Femto cells in a shared site strategy.

UK-DCMS demanded a proposal from all the operators of UK and declared Nov-26 as the last date for the submission.

Even though Vodafone-UK has been loud enough to point out the "Mess" in the proposal, there is heavy silence from other biggies like O2/T-Mobile.

 Reference : http://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/Press-Wire/messy-proposal-for-expanding-uk-mobile-coverage-is-unworkable-says-vodafone