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CONTENTS
1. Executive summary 2. Spectrum scarcity and the drive for TDD 3. Advantages of TD as a complementary technology 4. TD-LTE and FDD-LTE interworking scenarios 5. Managing demand using TDD-FDD traffic offloading and load balancing 6. From single-cell to multi-cell optimization 7. How does it work? 8.Conclusion Abbreviations 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 7 7
1. Executive summary
There are two variants of LTE technology for 4G mobile communications frequency division duplexing (FDD-LTE) and time division duplexing (TD-LTE). Operators across the world are looking to exploit the available spectrum for both technologies in order to meet the growing demand for network capacity. While the earliest LTE roll-outs favored FDD, TDD is becoming increasingly popular, both as a 4G technology of choice, and as a way of providing extra capacity in tandem with existing FDD deployments. TD-LTE is an equally viable and mature technology today as FDD-LTE. TDD spectrum can provide substantial additional bandwidth per operator in almost all countries. Even so, it will be critical for operators to use the available spectrum and other network resources as efficiently as possible if they hope to keep pace with demand and provide an excellent high-speed mobile broadband service for customers. Traffic steering is an important strategy for delivering that efficiency, balancing the load more evenly across the FDD and TDD networks and shifting it between them dynamically to meet constantly changing demand. Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) has introduced a special algorithm that enables networks to offload and balance traffic dynamically across and between multiple cells in FDD and TDD deployments. It increases the effective performance of existing network assets, with the resulting boost in capacity especially apparent at the cell edges. New features, such as eICIC/FeICIC and DL/UL CoMP, in Release 10, 11, and 12, of the 3GPP specifications for LTE user equipment and networks, promise to make the benefits of deploying the algorithm even greater in the future.
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5. Managing demand using TDD-FDD traffic offloading and load balancing
The demand for mobile Internet capacity is doubling each year. Whats more, that demand is highly lumpy. In other words it is uneven and unpredictable. This was starkly demonstrated in September 2013 when Apple released its iOS 7 operating system. Within a few hours, 130 million people had updated their devices, doubling the data demand on some ISPs around the world (http://www.theguardian. com/technology/2013/sep/19/ios-7-update-traffic-100-million). And who knows what effects trends such as HD & 3D video, video integrated everywhere and connected objects will have. It may seem that the obvious solution is to over-provision the network to cope with peak demand, but resources such as spectrum and capital investment are scarce, making this impractical. Operators are therefore looking for other solutions based on traffic offloading and load balancing. NSNs base station algorithm software optimizes radio resources system-wide across multiple cells, in contrast to conventional radio networks that have static cell boundaries. The algorithm software tears down traditional boundaries between neighboring cells and dynamically adjusts them based on the flow of the load among the cells. Not only can the algorithm achieve load balancing across cells of the same type, it also detects differences in load and offloads traffic from one network to another, such as from FDD-LTE to a TD-LTE network and vice versa.
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Paradigm Shift
Static cell boundaries
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8.Conclusion
FDD-LTE and TD-LTE roll-outs are gaining momentum and will co-exist around the world as operators look to make the most of their LTE spectrum allocations. The ecosystem of user devices that support both LTE variants is strong and growing. Traffic offloading and balancing across and between these networks is an important strategy for making the most of the available spectrum and other network assets in order to deliver the best possible mobile broadband experience of end users. NSN has demonstrated an advanced algorithm for traffic offloading and balancing across TD-LTE and FDD-LTE networks, enabling operators to make substantial increases in the effective capacity of their networks, especially at the cell edges. Furthermore, new features, such as eICIC/FeICIC and DL/UL CoMP, emerging in progressive releases of the 3GPP standards look set to increase the advantages even further in future.
Abbreviations
3GPP CoMP DL/UL CoMP eICIC FDD GHz IP LTE Mbps TDD 3rd Generation Partnership Project Coordinated Multipoint Downlink/Uplink Coordinated Multipoint enhanced Inter-cell interference coordination Frequency Division Duplexing Giga Hertz Internet Protocol Long Term Evolution Megabit per second Time Division Duplexing
ms milliseconds
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Nokia Solutions and Networks P.O. Box 1 FI-02022 Finland Visiting address: Karaportti 3, ESPOO, Finland Switchboard +358 71 400 4000 Product code C401-00910-WP-201312-1-EN
2013 Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved. Public NSN is a trademark of Nokia Solutions and Networks. Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks of their respective owners, and they are mentioned for identification purposes only.
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