Huawei, Vodafone get LTE, GSM to coexist in same spectrum

Chinese equipment vendor Huawei has showcased what it claims is the world’s first successful implementation of a Dynamic Spectrum Sharing technology trial with Vodafone Spain, that will allow LTE and GSM to coexist in the same spectrum. Although carrier aggregation technologies hold significant promise for maximising spectrum resources, it’s clear that many operators will be wedded to GSM for years to come and this approach leaves both LTE and GSM free to use the same spectrum.

GSM-LTE Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (GL DSS) is able to improve LTE capacity by up to 50 per cent by maximising wireless spectrum usage, the vendor said. Several operators, including Vodafone, currently hold bandwidths of 20MHz at 1.8GHz, of which 10MHz is used for LTE and the rest for high GSM traffic.

So at Vodafone’s Mobile Access Competence Center in Spain, Huawei tweaked its Single Radio Controller (SRC) that was released in 2013, to bring flexibility to spectrum resource allocation by introducing GL DSS. By applying interference scheduling in real time, the SRC gives GSM higher priority to use spectrum in periods of heavy traffic, providing protection against GSM voice interference. SRC also provides more spectrum for LTE compared to the standard fixed configuration through dynamic allocation; allowing for better LTE throughput.

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According to the pair, the trial verified GL DSS performance in the Vodafone-Spain commercial network, with results showing that this solution can reach LTE capacity gains of up to 50 per cent, making 15MHz effectively available for LTE with limited impact to GSM services.