Aircel conducts TDD-LTE trial on GSM/UMTS n/w

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Telecom service provider Aircel, telecom networking equipment vendor Huawei and chip-maker Qualcomm together conducted a GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD trial on Aircel’s GSM/UMTS network in India.

“Aircel is pleased to be the first telecom service provider to have successfully experienced LTE-TDD functionality using multimode devices based on Qualcomm’s MDM9600 chipset in our GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD network provided by Huawei at Hyderabad. It will further equip us to offer a rich mobile broadband experience to the subscribers,” said Mallikarjun Rao, CTO, Aircel.

Also Read: LTE infra market to be $12 billion by 2015: Study

Qualcomm Incorporated’s MDM9600 multimode chipset based devices, and Huawei’s convergent system were used for the trial.

This convergent GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD solution is based on Huawei’s SingleRAN, SingleCore network and multimode devices. The trial used Huawei E392,  an TE-TDD/FDD/UMTS/GSM/CDMA multi-mode USB dongle based on Qualcomm’s MDM9600 multimode chipset.

“This trial shows Huawei’s commercial readiness of our LTE-TDD end-to-end solution which will help operators achieve business success,” said Deng Taihua, president, Huawei’s WiMAX & TD-SCDMA & LTE-TDD product line. “This first IOT on an existing UMTS network will stimulate the mobile broadband market in India, and show the way forward for the LTE industry.”

During the trial, Huawei and Qualcomm also executed Inter-RAT (Inter-Radio Access Technology related cases covering multiple live handover scenarios across GSM/UMTS/LTE technologies.

“Qualcomm is pleased to have collaborated with Aircel and Huawei for this trial utilizing our MDM9600 multimode chipset. We are committed to establishing a strong LTE roadmap for both 3G HSPA and EV-DO operators, that utilises their existing investments to further the growth of mobile broadband in India,” said Sandeep Sibal, country manager and vice president-Business Development, Qualcomm India & South Asia.

The companies claim that services such as video streaming via YouTube, video on demand and high definition video surveillance were also conducted, which met the key performance indicators (KPIs) expected from an LTE-TDD system.