Analyst Angle: Fairness to Wi‐Fi is crucial to LTE unlicensed’s success

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    analyst angle lte unlicensed webinar

    A conversation with Jim Miller, director radio standards, InterDigital

    Download a transcript of the complete interview now and be among the first to receive the complete report when finalized.
    With its focus on enhancing wireless technologies and expanding wireless access and usage, InterDigital has had a keen interest in the development of LTE unlicensed from the beginning, because the technology naturally fits within InterDigital’s core areas of expertise – including cellular infrastructure, Wi-Fi and small cells.
    Jim Miller, director of radio standards at InterDigital, said “We take a technology-agnostic position, because we feel that, even though unlicensed spectrum is free to use, we want LAA-LTE to use it fairly. If it is not fair to Wi-Fi, LAA-LTE will end up occupying a niche market, where it can only be used in certain spectrum where Wi-Fi isn’t. That would not be good for it, and would make it a fringe technology that we wouldn’t necessarily need to be further involved in.”
    But what counts as fair? “At InterDigital, we define fairness as an LAA-LTE node being brought into an existing system not causing any more interference or degradation to a Wi-Fi cell than adding another Wi-Fi cell,” Miller told us. But added that “Fairness is probably going to be the biggest sticking point, because there are varying views on that.”
    Read or watch the full interview with Jim Miller to find out what the LTE unlicensed strategy at InterDigital is and how the company is supporting the standardization efforts for LAA-LTE.
    This conversation will be included in the Senza Fili report “LTE Unlicensed and Wi-Fi: Moving Beyond Coexistence” that will be published in May. If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of the report, please click here and you will be among the first to receive the report when it is finalized.