  Last month at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, Ericsson announced License Assisted Access (LAA), sometimes referred to as LTE-U, a mobile technology innovation that improves indoor app coverage for smartphone users. LAA is live in Ericsson labs and is now supporting the aggregation of licensed and unlicensed spectrum for peak rates up to 450 Mbps and enabling fair sharing of spectrum between mobile and Wi-Fi devices.
The technology milestone has been achieved in cooperation with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. Leading mobile operators, including Verizon, SK Telecom and T-Mobile US, Inc. are already investigating the performance benefits that LAA can offer to mobile customers on their networks.
“Verizon is committed to researching and adopting new technologies that will consistently improve the performance of our network and ultimately the experience we deliver to our customers. We are encouraged by the headway that Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies have made in demonstrating the benefits LAA can provide,” said Ed Chan, Senior Vice President, Network Planning, Verizon.
“SK Telecom is very active in the development of 5G technologies, which will be an extension and evolution of our LTE network. We are delighted to achieve the successful trial of the 450Mbps LAA and fair-sharing technology with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies and will continue to work closely with them to secure advanced network technologies,” said Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center, SK Telecom.
LAA, or LTE-U, extends the benefits of LTE to unlicensed spectrum, providing reliable and predictable performance. The licensed band provides an anchor to ensure a seamless user experience with full mobility while the unlicensed band provides incremental capacity and enables faster data speeds.
“It is very encouraging to see License Assisted Access live in the Ericsson labs already delivering on the promises of both a better mobile broadband customer experience and the fair sharing and co-existence within the 5 GHz band among wireless and Wi-Fi devices. With over 500 MHz of underutilized spectrum in the 5 GHz Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) band, LAA can provide our customers with superior network performance while effectively co-existing with other Wi-Fi devices to ensure a better experience for all wireless users,” said Neville Ray, Chief Technical Officer, T-Mobile.
“Qualcomm Technologies shares Ericsson’s commitment to delivering groundbreaking technologies that could have a dramatic impact on mobile user experiences. Our cooperation on delivering this live LTE-U demonstration for leading mobile operators around the world is just the latest of many industry innovations where Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson have driven the interoperability efforts that are critical to commercialization,” said Neville Meijers, Vice President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“Carrier Aggregation was an important technology trend for mobile networks in 2014 and LAA is already set to be a key focus for mobile operators in 2015. Innovations like LAA that improve the user experience while increasing spectrum efficiency will be significant milestones that mobile industry leaders must both drive and support,” said Thomas Norén, Vice President and Head of Radio Product Management, Ericsson.
Ericsson LAA incorporates fair sharing within the 5 GHz band to accommodate traditional Wi-Fi users. Fair sharing works on the principle that Wi-Fi and LAA users would have equal access to the spectrum.
The lab trials of both LAA fair sharing and licensed-unlicensed aggregation – 20 MHz on licensed band and 40 MHz on unlicensed 5 GHz band – were demonstrated in cooperation with Qualcomm, from the Ericsson radio development units in Ottawa, Ca |