Huawei, Vodafone and Qualcomm Technologies created a network in Turkey using License Assisted Access (LAA) technology, based on the 3GPP R13 standard.
Vodafone tested the LAA-ready network using a Huawei Lampsite base station in Vodafone Turkey’s Arena Store in Istanbul. The global telecom operator used 40MHz of unlicensed spectrum in 5GHz and 15MHz licensed spectrum in 2.6GHz for three carrier aggregation.
The LAA on mobile network, the world’s first, will help improve the user experience of consumers by enabling faster download speeds.
The test achieved a peak download speed of 370Mbps — using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with X16 LTE mobile test device.
The on-site test also showed that the spectral efficiency of LAA is higher than Wi-Fi when using the same 40MHz of spectrum.
The test also showed that an LAA network can coexist with Wi-Fi technology by supporting the 3GPP R13 standard for ’listen before talk’ technology. 3GPP’s LAA standard was finalized in March 2016.
Huawei small cell products can support LAA. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with X16 LTE is in production now and supports LAA technology. Consumers can expect smartphones with support for LAA this year.
“LAA technology will help Vodafone to improve the experience of our customers. The LAA network fully reuses the existing core network, network management system and accounting system we use for 4G, and so will effectively improve our return on investment,” said Santiago Tenorio, head of Networks for Vodafone Group.
Ryan Ding, president of Huawei products and solutions and Enrico Salvatori, senior vice president and president of Qualcomm EMEA were also part of the LAA technology test in Turkey.
