BOCA RATON, FL — Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies have achieved a blistering 953 megabits per second (Mbps) wireless speed in a joint commercial network deployment, bringing the reality of gigabit wireless to within reach, the three companies announced August 2.
Calling it a U.S. wireless industry first, the companies said their demonstration in Boca Raton, Fl., was the fastest announced speed achieved in a real-world, dynamic network environment leveraging Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology. Previously, comparable speeds had been achieved in only lab environments in recent months, the companies said in a press release.
Providing details of the demonstration, the companies said all commercially available Verizon network components were used, including a cell site, hardware, software and backhaul. Riding on the backbone of Verizon’s network infrastructure, Ericsson provided the most advanced remote radio head in the industry. Ericsson’s micro Radio 2205 for LAA, designed for unlicensed spectrum use, is a component of the Ericsson Radio System, an end-to-end modular radio network portfolio of hardware and software designed to fit all site types and traffic scenarios as networks grow in scale and complexity on the road to 5G. Qualcomm Technologies provided a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile platform test device, with gigabit LTE capability thanks to the integrated Snapdragon X16 LTE modem.
“Today’s milestone is a great example of our approach to new technology — we deploy the latest capabilities reliably and in real-world environments, not just in a lab,” said Nicola Palmer, chief wireless network officer for Verizon, in the press release. “By continuing to deploy the latest technologies on our 4G LTE Advanced network, we pave the way for better and faster performance for the things our customers do now, and provide the groundwork for our future advancements.”
To reach gigabit-class speeds, Verizon used a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum for the first time. This four-carrier aggregation uses LAA to combine Verizon’s spectrum holdings with unlicensed spectrum, which takes advantage of spectrum where home and commercial Wi-Fi technologies are available. Other technological advancements used by Verizon include: 4×4 MIMO (multiple in, multiple out) which uses multiple antennae at the cell tower and on consumer devices to optimize data speeds; and 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) which enables customer devices and the network to exchange information in large amounts, delivering more bits of data in each transmission, significantly enhancing data speeds.
“These technologies produce record speeds for wireless technology and we are proud to be leading the way to commercialization with such strong partnerships,” said Joakim Sorelius, head of product area network systems at Ericsson, in the press release.
Mike Finley, Qualcomm senior vice-president and president of Qualcomm North America, added: “It is exciting to see Gigabit LTE momentum globally and in the U.S., especially as we move closer to a 5G world. With leading operators and infrastructure vendors like Verizon and Ericsson, we will continue to develop and deploy innovative technologies to power future networks and devices.”
