Telecom Lead Asia: SK Telecom has tied up with Qualcomm
and Nokia Siemens Networks to demonstrate LTE-Advanced technology.
The Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC)
technology coordinates signal interference between macro and pico base
stations.
eICIC is gaining importance as more micro base stations
are being built in traffic concentrated areas to accommodate data traffic
growth.
SK Telecom, Nokia Siemens and Qualcomm created an
environment where the strength of micro base station signals being transmitted
to mobile devices was weaker than that of nearby macro base signals, resulting
in signal interference. They applied eICIC to prove that it can control the
interference and stabilize data communications.
The companies succeeded in showing that the technology is
capable of offloading data traffic by adjusting the coverage of micro base
stations based on the level of data traffic concentration in macro and micro
base stations.
At present, SK Telecom is the only company in the world
that has succeeded in demonstrating all three technologies – LTE-Advanced:
eICIC, Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) and Carrier Aggregation (CA).
SK Telecom expects to commercialize eICIC in the second
half of 2013.
The company commercialized CoMP in January 2012, after
adjusting the technology to suit the current LTE system.
It will achieve early commercialization of CA in the
second half of 2013.
Building on its competitive LTE technologies, SK Telecom
will make redoubled efforts to develop next-generation network technologies to
achieve early commercialization of LTE-Advanced by next year and secure
technological leadership,” said Kang Jong-Ryeol, head of Network Technology
R&D Center of SK Telecom.
