NSN base station supports 300 Mbps LTE-A speeds
Using NSN’s Flexi Multiradio 10 base station in combination with Broadcom Category 6 LTE-A user equipment, Finnish carrier Elisa has demonstrated speeds of up to 300Mbps on a live commercial network. That’s almost six times as fast as the average download speeds on U.S. LTE networks. The speeds are achieved through carrier aggregation, by combining two 20 MHz channels in the 1800 MHz band (LTE Band 3) and the 2600 MHz band (LTE Band 7).
“This test underlines the strong partnership between Elisa and NSN, one that dates back to the world’s first GSM network,” said Petteri Terho, account director at NSN in Finland. “After jointly building LTE networks on 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz, NSN enabled the operator to launch Finland’s first 800 MHz LTE network in January this year.” NSN is now wholly owned by Nokia, which bought Siemens out of the joint venture. With Nokia selling its device business to Microsoft, NSN’s wireless infrastructure business is now Nokia’s major focus.
Ericsson unifies network software
This week Ericsson launched a new platform called the Ericsson Network Manager which enables operators to use one platform to manage the radio network, the transport, the IP, the packet core and the core network. “This enables operators to reduce opex significantly because they will only have one system,” said Thomas Noren, head of Ericsson Radio. “The feedback we’ve gotten so far is that this is a huge step forward.”
The new platform is meant to allow operators to better manage HetNets, including multi-standard radio, small cell and integrated Wi-Fi in indoor environments, Time Division Multiplexing, evolved IP networks, virtual network infrastructures and SDN.
Ciena partners with Ericsson
Ericsson and Ciena said this week that they will work together to develop joint transport solutions for IP-optical convergence and service provider SDN. As part of the agreement, Ericsson will offer Ciena’s converged packet optical portfolio.
“As our industry moves toward a more open networking environment, collaboration within an ecosystem of specialists will be critical for innovation,” said Ciena CEO Gary Smith. “This strategic global agreement brings together two companies uniquely positioned to drive the adoption of more open, programmable networks.”
