T-Mobile, in partnership with Ericsson, has achieved a new milestone by delivering speeds of 1.1 Gbps using 12-layer Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology.
The feat is significant because it marks the first in the world to hit speeds beyond the 1 Gbps threshold on unlicensed spectrum.
The LAA technology builds upon T-Mobile deployments of 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM and will give customers even greater access to near gigabit speeds in 2018.
The demo took place at T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Washington lab using Ericsson Radio System and the TM500 network test equipment from Cobham Wireless.
For the trial, the companies used several LTE technologies including 256 QAM, 4×4 MIMO, and LAA by aggregating two licensed carriers and three unlicensed carriers.
The use of these LTE technologies on unlicensed spectrum complements licensed spectrum and makes it possible for a larger number of operators to reach gigabit speeds in their networks, Ericsson said.
LAA has been demonstrated previously on 10 layers, reaching download speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Extending to 12 layers enables speeds exceeding 1 Gbps. With this technology, the unlicensed carriers on these radios can be aggregated with licensed carriers on the micro cells or on nearby macro cells.
editor@telecomlead.com
