Archive for the ‘LTE’ Category

GSA reports on status of LTE in unlicensed and shared spectrum

Thursday, January 17th, 2019

LTE in unlicensed and shared spectrum remains at an “early stage” worldwide with interest “high,” according to a report published by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). Technologies discussed in the report include LAA, eLAA (LAA with uplink support), LTE-U, LWA (LTE Wireless-LAN Aggregation), LWIP (LTE WAN Integration with IPSec tunnel), and US-oriented CBRS. These are described in the report.

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Tracking LTE in unlicensed spectrum, and related technologies

Thursday, April 20th, 2017

The Global Mobile Supplier’s Association (GSA) has started tracking the use of unlicensed spectrum to improve LTE throughput. It recently issued its first in a series of quarterly reports. The report can be downloaded following a registration process.

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Mobile vendors bump LTE Broadcast

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

The mobile vendor community reminds us that LTE Broadcast exists and could get traction any day now. In a January 30 update (registration required) The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) puts the best light on trials that haven’t quite transitioned to a business.

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GSA makes a case for the LTE Broadcast business

Tuesday, November 17th, 2015

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), representing mobile industry vendors, has commissioned a report on opportunities in LTE broadcasting. Prepared by a UK business consultancy, it’s part marketing document making a case for impressive growth in the LTE Broadcast business, which in turn makes it a useful sales tool for GSA members.

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The emergence of FM broadcast interference to 700 MHz LTE

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

The law firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth has a post that’s unsettling to engineers such as I who don’t expect very different radio technologies on very different frequencies to interfere with one another.

It seems that 700 MHz base station receivers have become so sensitive they’re susceptible to 8th-order harmonic interference from FM broadcast stations. This is the case even though the FM transmitters meet FCC emission requirements. LTE receivers have become better than the FCC’s Rules.

The lawyers make several good arguments in support of the broadcasters. Unfortunately for the FM stations, Section 73.317(a) of the FCC’s Rules, which governs FM emissions, includes this provision: “. . . should harmful interference to other authorized stations occur, the licensee shall correct the problem promptly or cease operation.” We’re not lawyers, but that seems to be an overarching broad requirement that, until now, hasn’t been much of a concern.

These cases of interference are now being handled on an ad hoc basis, with some encouraging cooperation between broadcasters and the mobile industry. As mobile broadband receivers continue to improve and become even more sensitive, however, they will be even more susceptible to interference from FM harmonics. This should be looked at more formally by the FCC, perhaps in an inquiry or in a rulemaking proceeding.

 

Google responds to FCC request for more info about experimental radio project

Saturday, January 26th, 2013

In my post about Google’s latest experimental radio application, I observed it seemed incomplete. Yesterday, the FCC sent Google, through its attorney, an email asking for the missing information:

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Google’s “confidential” test might be a super-dense LTE network using Clearwire’s spectrum

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

Google filed an application at the FCC last week seeking permission to conduct testing of an experimental radio system.  Portions of the application and accompanying exhibits have been designated confidential and are thus not available to the public. Even the request for confidential treatment has been redacted. Let’s try to infer what’s happening from the information available.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during September-December 2012. These are related to LF and HF propagation, cognitive radio, satellite telemetry, ultra-wideband (UWB), ground-penetrating and synthetic-aperture radar, mobile broadband, aerial communications (balloons), LTE, managed access, military communications, Wi-Fi, GPS, sensor networks, and MVDDS. The descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency in the application.

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Qualcomm outlines vision of 1000x mobile capacity increases

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

In the first of a series of webinars, Qualcomm today began reporting on the results of its “1000x Data Challenge,” an initiative to meet what it sees as the need, someday, to increase mobile capacity 1000-times. The webinar, conducted by Rasmus Hellberg, Qualcomm’s Senior Director of Technical Marketing, was an overview. He discussed spectrum, small cells, and other techniques to increase capacity. More-detailed webinars on each of these are forthcoming: spectrum initiatives on  September 18, small cells and heterogeneous networks on October 18, and more efficient networks, applications, and devices on November 14. Today’s webinar should be posted tomorrow, and a white paper should appear in about a week.

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4G Americas Scenario Shows Mobile Data Growth Tapering Off

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, has released a report looking at broadband devices and applications, and their impact on HSPA and LTE networks. There’s quite a bit of interesting information; here I highlight the discussion on mobile broadband offload and mobile data growth.

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CTIA’s International Case for More Spectrum

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

In a recent blog post, CTIA compares some measures of the U.S. wireless industry to those in nine other countries. The purpose is two-fold; to show the U.S. is a leader in number of subscribers, lowest cost per voice minute, and spectrum efficiency, and to argue the need for getting more mobile broadband spectrum in the “pipeline.” These goals are somewhat at odds, and the spectrum-efficiency argument I don’t get, as I’ll explain, but within the constraints of a blog post I think CTIA makes the case that the U.S. is a clear leader in some areas, and that the prospects for more mobile spectrum in the U.S. are fuzzier than they should be today.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during June and July 2011. These are related to AM broadcasting, cognitive radio, land vehicle testing, ultra-wideband, ground penetrating radar, synthetic aperture radar, LTE, autonomous aerial refueling, SONAR telemetry, surveillance radar, wind-farm obstruction lighting, seismic activity detection, directed energy weapons, unmanned helicopter flights, precision electronic warfare, shaped-offset QPSK, Ku-band antennas, TV white space, and missile telemetry. The descriptions are sorted by frequency.

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Wired versus Wireless

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

The following is my response to a query on LTE versus wired, and the user experience. It capsulizes my current thinking, which evolves.

To your point, I don’t see LTE being competitive with wired in terms of speed or reliability today or in the future. You take the hit there for the convenience of mobile or portable operation. There’s a notion that if we just add enough base stations and repurpose enough spectrum to LTE, we can replicate the home wired experience in the mobile environment, but I don’t think that’s practical. The throughput from an LTE sector is divided among all users in the sector. If everyone wants to watch the Super Bowl at once on LTE, forget it (unless the LTE broadcasting standard is implemented, which let’s everyone watch the same channel like today’s TV (cough)). On FIOS or cable, the Super Bowl is no problem.

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Spectrum, Data, Capacity, and PR

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

A couple of days ago the Mobile Future coalition posted a short video on YouTube advocating the allocation of more spectrum for mobile broadband.  As evidence of the need, it says that, compared to feature phones, smartphones use 24 times the spectrum and tablets 120 times the spectrum.

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Reports from NAB and CTIA Address Efficient Use of Spectrum

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

Recent contributions to the mobile broadband spectrum debate are reports from NAB and CTIA. I envisioned a “dueling reports” piece, but they mostly complement each other. Below I walk through the main points, adding some of my own views.

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