Deutsche Telekom and Samsung claim to have improved cell edge performance by up to 50 percent on an LTE-A network using Inter-Sector MIMO (IS-MIMO) technology.
IS-MIMO, which has been developed by DT and Samsung, combines intra-site LTE cells to create one “super cell” before transmitting data from the best source. Performance is enhanced further when IS-MIMO is used in conjunction with carrier aggregation as it makes throughput more consistent, the companies explained.
The technology has allowed Deutsche and Samsung achieve peak speeds of 150Mbps at the cell edge in trials, they claimed. The companies said this performance is usually only possible close to the antenna in conventional LTE networks.
In traditional circumstances, performance degrades more the further the user moves away from the antenna until they hit the area between two LTE cell sites, where inter-cell interference limits throughput considerably.
According to DT and Samsung, their trial demonstrates that combining cells using IS-MIMO can “effectively remove the cell edge area between two intra-site sectors”.
Dong Soo Park, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D Team at Samsung Electronics’ Networks Business, said: ”Building upon Samsung’s Smart LTE, IS-MIMO will be a disruptive technology to deliver uniform service quality regardless of user location. Since the network will be more and more complex to support billions of devices and extended throughput for immersive contents, IS-MIMO will be a key technology required for future networks.”
MIMO, or multiple-input and multiple-output, technology has become a key element in vendors’ and operators’ efforts boost mobile network performance, particularly in the run-up to 5G.
Earlier this week, multi-user MIMO was used by Huawei and NTT DOCOMO in what the companies labelled the first large-scale trial of next-generation access technology.