Telecom Lead Asia: Ericsson India announced its 3GPP compliant Wi-Fi network access, control and management solutions.
The addition of carrier-grade Wi-Fi to mobile broadband is expected to ensure better connection to users.
Ericsson’s Wi-Fi network access will also enable mobile operators to easily incorporate Wi-Fi in their heterogeneous network strategy, while delivering a consistently better user experience, even in high traffic areas.
Indian smartphone users experienced the frustration of being automatically connected to a Wi-Fi network only to face a noticeably slower connection speed.
Daryl Schoolar, principal analyst, Network Infrastructure at Ovum, said: “Ericsson’s approach will yield a better user experience by preventing some of Wi-Fi’s well-known bad habits from being imposed upon users. At the same time, operators should welcome the tight integration of Wi-Fi and mobile.”
Ericsson says real-time traffic steering software upgrade assesses key performance indicators in both the mobile 3GPP network and the Wi-Fi network before dynamically and shifting the consumer’s smartphone connection between networks.
This ensures the best user experience and optimizes network resources. Real-time traffic steering is a network-driven feature requiring no user intervention or additional device software. Ericsson also now supports access selection, a self-optimizing network (SON) feature enabling load-balancing between Wi-Fi and 3GPP networks to optimize the average user experience.
Thomas Noren, vice president and Head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson, said: “By coordinating licensed small cells with the macro cell, as we announced earlier this year, and intelligently integrating Wi-Fi and 3GPP throughout the network, we’re providing operators with the most effective way to deliver consistently high performance consumer connections.”
With indoor areas increasingly prone to mobile network congestion, Ericsson has also developed the first 802.11ac access point designed to enable mobile operators to deliver supplemental small cell or standalone Wi-Fi coverage indoors. The 802.11ac standard is common on tablets and increasingly prevalent on smartphones.
Ericsson is also introducing integrated management of Wi-Fi and 3GPP networks on a common platform, simplifying operations and reducing network costs.
