Nokia, Ooredoo, China Mobile claim record in TDD-FDD CA

Nokia Networks, Ooredoo Qatar and China Mobile claimed to have achieved a record breaking speed of 4.1Gbps over TDD-FDD LTE carrier aggregation (CA).  The partners said this was realised through the combination of TDD and FDD LTE spectrums, and by aggregating 10 carriers with 200MHz bandwidth.

According to the trio, the speed ensures operators can exceed the most demanding mobile user expectations. They claimed users can for example download a 5GB HD film in 11 seconds, and simultaneously upload a 30MB video in less than a second.

“This ground-breaking throughput is a milestone that boosts our efforts as we drive the commercialization and globalization of TD-LTE and TDD-FDD converged technology across the globe,” Madam Huang Yuhong, Deputy General Manager of China Mobile Research Institute and Secretary General of the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) said.

“In collaboration with Nokia Networks, our long-standing and trusted partner, we continue to exploit the immense capacity potential of TD-LTE.”

The CA demonstration, which was also supported by the dedicated Global TD-LTE Initiative, was carried out during the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) Telecom World 2014 event in Qatar.

“We are building the biggest, fastest network in Qatar, so that customers across the country can access next-generation wireless data services,” Waleed Al Sayed, COO at Ooredoo Qatar, said.

“We are very proud that the first-ever ITU Telecom World to be held in Qatar should showcase this record-breaking success with the support of Ooredoo. By deploying our advanced LTE network in Qatar, we are truly laying the foundation for the future.”

The technology used included Nokia Network’s commercial Single RAN Advanced hardware with the Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station, and carrier aggregation software as well as LTE-Advanced multiple input output (MIMO) technology.

“We just broke our own speed record which shows our capability to help operators address the ever-increasing demand for faster data download and upload speeds,” Zhang Qi, VP of TD-LTE at Nokia Networks, said.

“TDD-FDD LTE not only delivers high uplink and downlink throughput, but also helps balancing the load between two networks, efficiently using the spectrum.”

Ooredoo Qatar is probably keen to invest in this type of technology especially as the country prepares to host the 2022 FIFA world cup games. This technology can improve downlink and uplink capacity for data-intensive applications such as streaming. Uplink is important at mass events such as sports events, festivals and concerts.