Ericsson in collaboration with Qualcomm has showcased a live demonstration of License Assisted Access (LAA) applications such as peak rate and fair-sharing to leading mobile operators, including Verizon, SK Telecom and T-Mobile US. The LAA technology which s also known as LTE-U is a mobile technology innovation that is designed to improve indoor app coverage for smartphone users.
The LAA setup 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. 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 by the Ericsson radio development units in Ottawa, Canada and Stockholm, Sweden.
Neville Ray, Chief Technical Officer, T-Mobile
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.
Thomas Norén, Vice President and Head of Radio Product Management, Ericsson
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.
