LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum: Trials, Deployments and Devices

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum: Trials, Deployments and Devices"

Godfrey Kelley Norris
5 years ago
Views:

1 LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum: Trials, Deployments and Devices Prepared by GSA based on intelligence gathered as part of its ongoing industry research programme January

2 Introduction This report is the fourth quarterly report tracking the progress of the key technologies for using LTE in unlicensed spectrum: LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA, or LTE-LAA) and its future enhancement elaa, and related technologies such as LWA. Future reports will cover the status of networks and ecosystems for LWIP. GSA summarises network trials as well as s, and the availability of chipsets, modules and devices. GSA welcomes additions to its database of LAA/eLAA, LTE-U, LWA and LWIP products and networks from the industry. The database also contains information about spectrum bands and bandwidth used, where available. Please contact if you have additional information. GSA makes no guarantees that the information is complete, but reasonable efforts have been made to be comprehensive and accurate. The next update of this report will be at the beginning of April Key data points 21 LAA trials, s and launches 10 LTE-U trials, s and launches 2 LWA planned s 18 commercially available chipsets and modules supporting unlicensed access 29 small cells and smartphones announced Technology context The idea of using unlicensed spectrum to offer LTE services and improve downlink throughput has been around for some years and there are alternative approaches. LAA is a 3GPP standard finalised in Release 13 (Rel-13) and involves a licensed LTE band as the primary carrier and Carrier Aggregation (CA) used to add a carrier in unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum for the downlink only. In Rel-14, elaa adds uplink support. 2

3 High-priority traffic can use the licensed band, while lower priority traffic can use the Wi-Fi channel. The decision on traffic allocation is made by the LAA enabled /small cell, and there is no impact on the core network infrastructure. TDD and FDD modes are supported in the standard. Fair coexistence in the unlicensed channel is provided by a region-specific listen-before-talk (LBT) capability to ensure channels are clear before transmission. LBT is mandatory in the EU and Japan. LTE-U is a pre-release 13 technology pioneered in the US (notably by Verizon and T-) and is also being trialled in other countries including South Korea, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. It is similar to LAA with Carrier Aggregation; no core network changes; decisions on spectrum use made by /small cell except that LTE-U uses Carrier-Sensing Adaptive Transmission (CSAT) rather than LBT to determine when the 5 GHz unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum is in use to maintain fair coexistence. Development of the industry standard has been led by the LTE-U Forum. In February 2017, the USA s FCC authorised LTE-U devices for use in the 5 GHz unlicensed band. LTE-U has an upgrade path to LAA and elaa. LWA (LTE Wireless-LAN Aggregation) is a 3GPP Rel-13 standardised technology, which aggregates carriers at the PDCP layer and uses the Dual Connectivity feature from 3GPP Rel-12. LWA supports downlink aggregation only; elwa in Rel-14 adds uplink support. Separate nodes (a WLAN access point and an LTE ) are used, and these can be physically separate or collocated in a single unit. The enodeb makes the decision on activation of LWA and the use of the bearers. LBT is used to ensure fair coexistence in the unlicensed band. Both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum bands can be used. LWIP (LTE WAN Integration with IPSec tunnel) is a Rel-13 feature similar to LWA but performing aggregation and switching at the IP layer. It has been designed to require no changes to existing WLAN infrastructure, and in its Rel-13 version, can support uplink data transmission as well as downlink. There are other approaches of interest. MulteFire leverages LAA for the downlink and elaa for the uplink, with additional enhancements to operate 3

4 without a licensed spectrum anchor. By removing the requirement for licensed spectrum, MulteFire allows more entities to deploy networks and benefit from LTE technology. CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) was set up by the FCC in the USA in April 2016 to use the 3.5 GHz band ( MHz) as a space where a variety of users could share bandwidth. Live operator networks There have been two LTE-U network s. T- USA s network was launched in June 2017 covering Bellevue, WA; Brooklyn, NY; Dearborn, MI; Las Vegas, NV; Richardson, TX; and Simi Valley, CA. The operator has previously announced plans to continue to roll the network out through 2018 using carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM in the 5 GHz unlicensed band, but interestingly T- announced in November 2017 that it plans to shift its focus away from LTE-U toward LAA in the first half of This is after tests with Ericsson that achieved speeds of 1.1 Gbps using 12-layer LAA. Vodacom in South Africa deployed LTE-U in its network on a very limited scale in Midrand in 2016, but it too has recently announced plans to deploy LAA (currently under test in the same location) on a national scale. Meanwhile in November 2017, Verizon in the USA announced that it would be moving its focus from LTE-U, which it has been trialling since 2015, to LAA. The operator conducted a test of LAA in August 2017 during which speeds of 953 Mbps were achieved. As far as we are aware, there is one commercial LAA network, that of AT&T in the USA. We understand several other operators are close to launching their own networks (see Table 1). Significant among these are: TIM in Italy Two networks in South Africa (MTN and Vodacom) Verizon in the USA announced that it will be focussing on LAA in Vodafone Turkey s LAA-ready network Singaporean operator Singtel. 4

5 There has been no update on the progress of the two LWA networks where was planned: Chunghwa Telecom s LWA network was scheduled for launch to consumers in 2017 in the Taipei area M1 Singapore s LWA network was scheduled for commercial launch during In August 2017, AIS in Thailand launched a network called AIS NEXT G that uses multipath TCP technology (MP-TCP protocol); this is an alternative way of enabling the use of combinations of licensed and unlicensed bands; it does not use standardised LAA, LTE-U or LWA technology. In yet another approach, Redzone Wireless in the USA has announced plans for a FWA broadband service capable of Gigabit speeds that combines both licensed LTE (at 2.5 GHz) and unlicensed wireless broadband technologies (at 5 GHz and 60 GHz) on a single tower and integrates them with a proprietary operational support system (OSS). It has already launched a network combining LTE at 2.5 GHz with unlicensed spectrum at 5 GHz to deliver speeds of 450 Mbps. Operator demos, trials and planned s There are 21 commercial, planned or trial networks and demonstrations for LAA Since the last report in October 2017, there has been continued trial activity among operators and vendors of LAA technology; several of these trials have been in live networks and s are now planned across multiple cities. It is expected that for many operators, LAA will be deployed initially in hotspots. Since the last report several operators started LAA trials; these are US operator Sprint, Brazilian Claro, Canada s Telus, Singapore s Singtel, Telenor Pakistan and Russian Veon (formerly Vimpelcom). Zain in Saudi Arabia is the only operator that we know of that has conducted LTE-U trials since our last report. We have not identified any additional trials of LWA since our last report. Before March 2016 when 3GPP Rel-13 was finalised, announcements of demos and trials of LAA or LWA would have referred to pre-standard versions of these technologies. Terms may not have been used consistently in press releases and other statements, for instance, trials of pre-standard LAA in some cases involve what has subsequently become known as LTE-U; Nokia s cellular/wi-fi boost technology was a pre-standards version of LWA, for example. 5

6 Tables 1, 2 and 3 give details of commercial, planned and trial networks and demos for each of the three technologies covered in this report. Table 1: planned and trial networks and deonstrations for LAA Operator Country Status Notes AT&T USA ly deployed LAA in Indianapolis in November China China Planned Trials with Baicells, Radisys (announced Feb, Mar 2016); planned. Claro Brazil Trial Conducted a trial in October 2017 achieving downlink speeds of up to 1 Gbps. The tests utilised a 20 MHz block of 2.5 GHz spectrum with 60 MHz of unlicensed 5 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum. Deutsche Telekom Germany Trial Trials with Qualcomm (announced March 2015). MTN South Africa Planned Trial with Huawei and Qualcomm in Pretoria (announced May 2017). Trial aggregated 15 MHz of 2.1 GHz licensed spectrum with 40 MHz of unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band. Peak downlink throughput of 400 Mbps achieved. Planned nationwide of Huawei Lampsite small cells. MTS Russia Trial With Ericsson and Qualcomm (announced July 2017). Used the 5 GHz band, and Ericsson's Pico RBS 6402 small cell and a device using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X16 modem. NTT DoCoMo Japan Trial (Pre-standards) trials with Huawei (announced 2014, 2015) involving 'adaptive LBT'. Singtel Singapore Trial In December 2017, Singtel delivered 1.1 Gbps peak speed during a LAA trial. The trial was conducted in partnership with Ericsson, combining 256 QAM, 4x4 MIMO and aggregating two licensed and three unlicensed spectrum bands. SK Telecom South Korea Trial With Ericsson (announced July 2017); 20 MHz of licensed and 3x20 MHz of unlicensed spectrum; equipment from Ericsson; plus, 4x4 MIMO on the licensed band delivered 1 Gbps downstream indoors. 6

7 Operator Country Status Notes SmarTone Hong Kong Trial With Ericsson (announced Aug 2017). 10 MHz licensed spectrum and 3x20 MHz in unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum. Used the Ericsson Micro Radio 2205 and Qualcomm X16 modem. Sprint USA Trial With Spidercloud (announced Dec 2017). Achieved speeds between 120 Mbps and 140 Mbps, using 5 GHz of licensed spectrum and 5 GHz of unlicensed spectrum. Telenor Pakistan Trial Demonstrated LAA at its lab. Telus Canada Trial Trialled on indoor and outdoor networks. Achieved speeds of 970 Mbps using 80 MHz of aggregated spectrum (announced Sept 2017). TIM Italy Planned Ericsson network equipment and an ASUS smartphone, using Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile. Live network trial in Milan achieved speeds up to 1 Gbps. service planned for all major towns and cities. T- USA Trial Conducted commercial network test in June 2017 in six cities. The test reached speeds of 741 Mbps using 80 MHz of aggregated spectrum. Demonstrations in December 2017 conducted with Ericsson delivered 1.1 Gbps using 12-layer LAA (using 256 QAM< 4x4 MIMO and LAA by aggregating two licensed carriers and three unlicensed carriers. Verizon USA Planned Veon (formerly Vimpelcom) Plans to deploy Ericsson Radio 2205 around the USA, and to use 5 GHz unlicensed band. Trial with Ericsson and Qualcomm (announced August 2017) on live network in Boco Raton reached 953 Mbps. Russia Trial Trial with Huawei combined 10 MHz of Band 7 and 2x20 MHz in the unlicensed 5 GHz band. The upload speed achieved was 450 Mbps. Vodacom South Africa Planned Trial with Huawei; uses Motorola Z2 Force commercial device; 10 MHz of 1800 MHz spectrum and 3x20 MHz carriers in unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum. Achieved 650 Mbps peak downlink speed; rollout planned. 7

8 There are 10 commercial, planned or trial networks and demonstrations for LTE-U Operator Country Status Notes Vodafone Netherlands Demo With Ericsson (Nov 2015). Vodafone Turkey Planned Deploying Huawei and SpiderCloud small cells for LAA (announced Feb 2017). XL Axiata Indonesia Trial With Ericsson (announced Nov 2015) involving 'LAA'. Figure 1: Countries with commercial, planned and trial networks and demonstrations for LAA Table 2:, planned and trial networks and demonstrations for LTE-U Operator Country Status Notes AT&T USA Trial Trials announced in March 2016 (LAA also being trialled). China China Planned Trials with Baicells, Radisys (announced Feb, Mar 2016); planned. LG U+ South Korea Trial Trial using 5.8 GHz unlicensed spectrum band (announced May 2015). MTN South Africa Trial With Ericsson (announced April 2016). MTS Russia Trial With Ericsson (announced Dec 2015 for 2016) of LTE-U/LAA. Telefonica Spain Demo With Ericsson (announced March 2016). T- USA network launched in six cities in June 2017; Ericsson and Nokia providing equipment. T- asked FCC for permission to extend testing until December 2017, in AWS-1 licensed spectrum and 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum. 8

Operator Country Status Notes Verizon USA Planned Samsung and Verizon trials started in 2015; Qualcomm and SpiderCloud Wireless also involved in pilots in 2017.

Vodacom South Africa Deployed Network deployed at Midrand campus and forecourt of shopping centre. Launched in May 2016.

9 Operator Country Status Notes Verizon USA Planned Samsung and Verizon trials started in 2015; Qualcomm and SpiderCloud Wireless also involved in pilots in Demonstrated 953 Mbps in commercial equipment in August 2017 and is now deploying the technology in its network. Vodacom South Africa Deployed Network deployed at Midrand campus and forecourt of shopping centre. Launched in May Zain Saudi Arabia Trial Aggregated spectrum in 5 GHz and 1800 MHz bands for speeds of 223 Mbps on its commercial network with Nokia. Figure 2: Countries commercial, planned and trial networks and demonstrations for LTE-U Table 3:, planned and trial networks and demonstrations for LWA Operator Country Status Notes Chunghwa Telecom Taiwan Planned M1 Singapore Planned availability of services was expected 2017 (announced Feb 2017); equipment from MediaTek, Sercomm and HTC. Trial announced Aug 2016, involving Nokia's Flexi Zone equipment; and commercial services planned for

Figure 3: Number of operators per country: Deployed, planned and trial networks and demonstrations of LTE Unlicensed technologies (LAA, LTE-U and LWA) Chipsets and modules The silicon required to

10 Figure 3: Number of operators per country: Deployed, planned and trial networks and demonstrations of LTE Unlicensed technologies (LAA, LTE-U and LWA) Chipsets and modules The silicon required to deliver LTE-U, LAA, LWA and other related network features comes in a number of forms. Key are the modems and mobile s that can handle aggregation of carriers in both licensed and unlicensed spectrum and the bandwidth enabled by such aggregation. Baseband SoCs (System on Chip) also need to be capable of supporting the relevant technologies on the. Since the publication of the last report, three new LAA chipsets have been released: Qualcomm s Snapdragon 845 mobile and its X20 modem both of which support LAA and LTE-U. Xiaomi s CEO Lei Jun announced at the launch event that the Chinese mobile manufacturer plans to use them in its flagship phones. It can be presumed that many other phone manufacturers will also use the s. Another recently released chipset is Intel s XMM7560 modem which supports LAA. In January 2018 Samsung announced its Cat 18 Exynos 9810 which will utilise elaa technologies. 10

11 Table 4 summarises known commercial products in a number of different categories: SoC, mobile and modem. In addition, we expect MediaTek s Helio X35 mobile, currently pre-commercial (announced November 2016), will support relevant technologies, but details have not been released. Table 4: Known commercial products for unlicensed Vendor Intel Qualcomm TI TI Mediatek MediaTek Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm Samsung Samsung Product type Base station SoC Base station SoC Base station SoC Base station SoC Name Technology Notes Transcede T3K LAA, LTE-U Available since 3Q 2014 FSM9955 LAA, LTE-U Available since February 2016 KeyStone II TCI6630K2L KeyStone II TCI6630K2H LAA Available since 2015 LAA Available since 2015 Helio X30 LTE-U, LWA Includes WorldMode modem; used in Vernee Apollo 2 smartphone MT6750 LTE-U, LWA Includes WorldMode modem Snapdragon 820 Snapdragon 821 Snapdragon 835 Snapdragon 845 LTE-U, LWA Announced September 2015 LTE-U, LWA Available since July 2016 LAA, LTE-U Used in multiple smartphones LAA, LTE-U Announced Feb 2017, expected release in Q Exynos 8895 LAA May be used in Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ outside US Exynos 9810 LAA Will support elaa (announced Jan 2018) Intel Modem XMM7560 LAA since Nov 2017 Mediatek Modem WorldMode LTE-U, LWA Announced March 2017 Qualcomm Modem Snapdragon X20 Qualcomm Modem Snapdragon X16 LAA, LTE-U Announced Feb 2017, expected release in Q LAA, LTE-U Announced February

12 Vendor Product type Name Technology Notes Qualcomm Modem Snapdragon X12 Sierra Wireless LTE-U, LWA Supports LTE-U with WTR3950 transceiver, and LWA with QCA6174A chipset Module EM7565 LAA Announced September 2017 MediaTek s Helio P10 is used in HTC s U Play smartphone; Chunghwa Telecom states this device is LWA-capable (possibly after a firmware upgrade), but we have not been able to confirm the details. Devices Table 5 summarises known commercial devices now available in a number of different categories: software, indoor small cells, outdoor small cells and smartphones. Other categories will be added as devices become available. Since our last report in October 2017, more smartphones are now shipping equipped with Qualcomm s LAA- and LTE-U-capable Snapdragon 835 mobile s. This does not mean that the feature is enabled in the smartphone, as this is a decision to be made by the smartphone vendor and network operators. T- USA says that the Samsung Galaxy S8 supports its live LAA service. In this report, not every smartphone with the Snapdragon 835 mobile is mentioned, only those that have confirmed LTE unlicensed capabilities are listed. On the infrastructure side, Samsung announced in September 2017 that it is developing an LAA-capable small cell that will support 3-channel carrier aggregation; trials will begin in Nokia says its new AirScale Wi-Fi AC220 will be enhanced to support LWA. Network simulators and analysers have also become available. We understand that Nokia s Femtocell Multiband SoHo uses a Qualcomm chipset (FSM99xx) that can be enabled for LAA/LTE-U, but Nokia has not confirmed that the product supports those features. Ericsson s Micro Radio 2205 outdoor/indoor small cell is being used in several LAA trials; the company has confirmed that its Radio Dot System is being developed for LAA (but not LTE-U), and that the Vault Radio concept will also have similar capabilities to the Radio

13 In addition to devices listed in the table, Cisco resells SpiderCloud s entire portfolio of small cell products. Cisco is not separately marked as a vendor of those products in our database. SpiderCloud s small cells SCRN-220 AND SCRN-250 were used by US operator Sprint to support its 1.9 GHz spectrum band for enterprise and venues. The addition of support for Sprint s 2.5 GHz band is planned for mid Table 5: LAA, LTE-U and LWA device status Vendor Product type Name LAA LTE-U LWA Radisys Radisys Nokia Spidercloud Wireless Spidercloud Wireless SpiderCloud Wireless Ericsson Ericsson Airspan Baicells Ericsson Ericsson Huawei Huawei Nokia Nokia Base station software Base station software Enterprise small cell Enterprise small cell Enterprise small cell Enterprise small cell Outdoor small cell Outdoor small cell CellEngine TOTAL enodeb+ CellEngine 5G RAN v1.0 FlexiZone Indoor Multiband SCRN-220 SCRN-250 Upgradeable Upgradeable SCRN-320 Upgradeable Radio 2205 Vault Radio AirVelocity Light4G solution In development Upgradeable RBS6402 Upgradeable Radio Dot System In development AtomCell Lampsite 2.0 /3.0 FlexiZone Multiband AirScale Wi-Fi AC220 Upgradeable 13

14 Vendor Product type Name LAA LTE-U LWA Samsung Sercomm ZTE LTE-U efemto Upgradeable SCB107Ev2 Qcell Plus HTC Smartphone U Play HTC Smartphone U11 LG Smartphone G6 Motorola Smartphone Z2 Force OnePlus Smartphone 5 Samsung Smartphone Galaxy S8/S8+ Samsung Smartphone Galaxy Note8 Samsung Smartphone Galaxy S8 Active Sony Smartphone Xperia XZ Premium Upgradable Sony Smartphone Xperia XZ1 Sony Smartphone Xperia XZ1 Compact ZTE Smartphone Nubia z17 Note that we understand that the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ uses Samsung s Exynos 8895 mobile in markets outside the US and China. Samsung s Galaxy S8 Active can support LAA through an upgrade released in December Ericsson confirms that its Network Software 16a supports LAA and LTE-U. Conclusion There continues to be steady progress across a number of technologies supporting the use of unlicensed spectrum for LTE services in particular LAA with advanced network trials, planned s and a growing ecosystem of chipsets, network infrastructure and devices. The GSA is committed to tracking this important market; the next in this series of reports will be published at the beginning of April

15 GAMBoD and NTS databases The GSA Analyser for Broadband Database (GAMBoD) will continue to track 3GPP standards-based devices. The GSA Networks, Technologies and Spectrum (NTS) database tracks announced operator networks, technologies (including LAA/LTE-U etc.), spectrum, network speeds, and other parameters, and is fully searchable. About GSA GSA (the Global mobile Suppliers Association) is a not-for-profit industry organisation representing companies across the worldwide mobile ecosystem engaged in the supply of infrastructure, semiconductors, test equipment, devices, applications and mobile support services. GSA actively promotes the 3GPP technology road-map 3G, 4G, 5G and is a single source of information resource for industry reports and market intelligence. GSA Members drive the GSA agenda and define the communications and development strategy for the Association. Membership of GSA is open to any supplier of products; systems or services related to the mobile industry and brings many benefits including access to the GAMBoD database. The range of benefits includes enhanced discussion, networking and influencing opportunities on the key industry topics, and unique promotional/visibility opportunities for your company name, capabilities, positioning and messages. More details can be found at com/gsa-membership/ News/updates: RSS Feed: GSA LinkedIn group: LTE User Devices LinkedIn group: LTE-Unlicensed LinkedIn group: Twitter: Facebook: GSA/ Contact GSA Secretariat research@gsacom.com Tel: GSA website: NOTE: Errors and omission excepte 15

Spectrum for 4G and 5G. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. July, 2017

Spectrum for 4G and 5G. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. July, 2017 Spectrum for 4G and 5G Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. July, 2017 Using all available spectrum types and spectrum bands Licensed spectrum Exclusive use Over 40 bands globally for LTE Shared spectrum New shared