An initiative is underway to push HSPA to downlink speeds of more than 650 Mbps by 2013.
Long Term HSPA Evolution, which is being driven by Nokia Siemens Networks and T-Mobile USA, aims to match the mobile broadband speeds promised by LTE Advanced by leveraging many of the same techniques. Long Term HSPA Evolution features would be backwards compatible and can be used together with existing WCDMA and HSPA mobiles on the same carriers. Key features of Long Term HSPA Evolution were accepted during the plenary meeting of 3GPP RAN held last week. These include:
- HSDPA Multicarrier evolution: Combines up to eight carriers and provides peak data rates of up to 672 Mbps along with improving spectrum utilization. To overcome operators' spectrum fragmentation constraints, HSDPA carrier aggregation enables carriers from more than one frequency band to be combined.
- HSDPA Multipoint transmission: Significantly increases the cell edge data rate by coordinating and combining signals from multiple antennas.
- Dual antenna beamforming and MIMO in uplink: Improves the uplink performance with dual-antenna transmission, doubling the uplink peak data rate and improving the user average data rate by 30% with 2x2 MIMO/ beam forming. With 2x4 MIMO, over 100% increase in average user data rates can be achieved due to beam forming gain and four receive antennas in the base station.
The detailed specification work to deliver these features will take place in RAN working groups. Other Long Term HSPA Evolution features are expected to be considered in subsequent 3GPP meetings.
"The demand for higher data rates and mobile broadband growth continues to push the need for advances in both HSPA and LTE technologies," added Keith Sutton, head of the WCDMA business line for Nokia Siemens Networks. "We are thus equally committed to both technologies. As a leader in HSPA evolution, we have already demonstrated data rates exceeding 100 Mbps at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year. Today, we also have the largest number of HSPA customers with nearly 200 operators worldwide. Driving the standardization of the new technology is a natural extension of our efforts to realize the full potential of HSPA."
"We strongly believe in continued HSPA evolution in parallel to the further development of LTE and LTE Advanced," said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. "Long Term HSPA Evolution will allow us to enhance our 4G mobile broadband network beyond its current and planned near term capabilities, and provide room for considerable growth and speed enhancements. As customer demand for wireless data increases, we are well positioned to compete based on the speed, breadth and evolution path of our mobile broadband service."
A white paper is posted on the NSN website:
Long Term HSPA Evolution - Mobile Broadband Evolution Beyond 3GPP Release 10 -- http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/portfolio/products/mobile-broadbandhttp://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
http://www.T-Mobile.com
