Nokia Networks and Deutsche Telekom have demonstrated a new technique to increase the capacity of LTE by harnessing two previously incompatible areas of the radio spectrum.

At an event in Athens Nokia Networks, Deutsche Telekom and its Greek subsidiary Cosmote demonstrated what they claimed was the first ever successful LTE-Advanced three carrier aggregation of FDD band 3 (1.8 GHz) and TDD in band 42 (3.5 GHz). The demo system ran on a commercial Nokia Single RAN Advanced platform, using a Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for both FDD and TDD technologies.

The tests claim to prove the feasibility of using LTE-TDD on the 3.5 GHz band in next generation networks. With 400 MHz of fresh TDD spectrum bandwidth available in many countries, using the 3.5 GHz part of the spectrum is now a potential option. Both LTE and LTE-A Pro technologies now offer the potential to cater for bandwidth hungry apps like video streaming. Out of 62 commercially launched TD-LTE networks, 12 currently use the 3.5 GHz LTE-TDD spectrum.

Nokia Networks was the first to achieve TDD-FDD 2 carrier aggregation. In November Telecoms.com reported that Vodafone, Ericsson and Qualcomm claimed to have successfully harmonised licensed and unlicensed spectrum for the first time via commercial LTE Carrier Aggregation (CA).

“Spectrum plays a fundamental role for mobile communications as we look to exploit opportunities to meet the growing demand for network capacity. The FDD-TDD 3 carrier aggregation demo sets a benchmark for a completely new combination of technologies,” said Rachid El Hattachi, Deutsche Telekom’s SVP Technology Architecture & Blueprints.

“We are proud and pleased to partner with Deutsche Telekom and Cosmote to demonstrate the world’s first 3 carrier aggregation across LTE-FDD and -TDD using band 42,” Said Nokia SVP for Europe Markus Borchert. “With Nokia Networks’ expertise in LTE-Advanced, we will help the operator take full advantage of its LTE spectrum to deliver the data experience its subscribers deserve.”

Meanwhile, In Munich Nokia Networks is hosting the first 5G Connected Industries Forum to bring together business leaders, government officials and experts from research institutes and academia to discuss the usage of 5G technology beyond consumer mobile broadband.