NEC today announced that it is contributing to NTT DOCOMO's field trial of carrier aggregation using the 3.5GHz Time Division LTE (TD-LTE) technology. DOCOMO plans to provide its LTE-Advanced mobile communication service using the technology in June 2016.
NEC began supplying high-capacity base station equipment for DOCOMO's LTE-Advanced communications service in February 2015. This time, NEC has updated software in the high-capacity base station equipment, enabling the base stations to operate with 3.5GHz TD-LTE remote radio equipment (also known as remote radio head). With this enhancement, DOCOMO will achieve carrier aggregation that combines the 3.5GHz band and the conventionally supported frequency bands to boost the speed and capacity of its LTE-Advanced mobile communication service.
NEC said that it is also developing the 3.5GHz TD-LTE remote radio equipment for macro cells and small cells. The equipment under development has been reduced in size through the use of highly efficient amplifiers and highly integrated components, and the improvement of thermal design, enabling flexible installation in limited site spaces. Particularly, significant size reductions have been achieved for the remote radio equipment for macro cells, which is 40% smaller than NEC's conventional model.
Seizo Onoe, DOCOMO's Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Our LTE-Advanced service, enabled by combining the Advanced C-RAN Architecture with aggregation of TD-LTE and FDD-LTE, helps to further improve the peak rate and network stability, while enhancing user experience.
Shunichiro Tejima, Executive Vice President, NEC Corporation
I firmly believe that this latest enhancement will raise the user experience through improving average speed and connectivity. Going forward, NEC will continue supporting DOCOMO expand their LTE-Advanced mobile communication service and create innovative next-generation mobile communication services.
