Keeping the signaling noise at bay – TD-LTE Interference Mitigation Techniques

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February 16, 2012
IN: Mobile networks
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A 4G technology like TD-LTE allows users to do more using faster smartphones. However, as happens in fairy tales, all good things have a caveat: Every time the user clicks on an app, the smartphone will send a signal to the base station. In fact, every time we use data services, each session requires a fair amount of signaling. If there were only one user in the world, this would not be a challenge. However, if several hundred individuals are using data services at the same time in close proximity to each other, you have something called interference. In such conditions the base station is having trouble interpreting the signals it receives – and the smartphone needs to resend the signal until the base station understands it. And the user? The user will either have a bad reception, or will not receive the requested data at all.

Some vendors may suggest setting up additional base stations to satisfy the users. However, we at Nokia Siemens Networks think that this approach is less than ideal, as it will increase costs – for maintaining the sites. Wouldn’t it be much better if interferences were managed to increase network capacity, improve mobile user experience and decrease costs?

This is why Nokia Siemens Networks developed a software technology to analyze and minimize interference. TD-LTE Interference Mitigation Techniques (TD-LTE IMT) are a comprehensive, field-tested, and results-driven software. Nokia Siemens Networks has already deployed a significant number of commercial TD-LTE networks with the TD-LTE IMT software. The company’s commercial TD-LTE launch customers include STC (Saudi Telecom Company) in Saudi Arabia and Sky in Brazil. Nokia Siemens Networks is also deploying a TD-LTE network for China Mobile in a large-scale field trial.

TD-LTE Interference Mitigation Techniques offer a combination of technologies for all kinds of signaling loads: networks experiencing a small number of requests, those dealing with an average load, and for the network hub that receives hundreds of signals per second. All technologies are active on the base station at any given point in time – the software automatically selects the most appropriate solution for a specific signaling load. This means that base stations such as Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station handle the traffic much more efficiently. This is part of Nokia Siemens Networks’ Liquid Net approach: A telecommunications network that addresses unpredictable broadband demand by adapting instantly to changing customer needs and using existing resources flexibly, wherever and whenever broadband is needed. To prove our point: In high traffic areas, Nokia Siemens Networks achieves an improvement of up to 40 percent in uplink speed using the new technology, thereby reducing costs for operators by up to 30 percent. The enhanced network efficiency and increased capacity facilitate TD-LTE deployments for operators as well as increase user experience.

Visit us at the Nokia Siemens Networks Experience Center in Hall 8 at Mobile World Congress to experience live demos of our TD-LTE Interference Mitigation Techniques.

This post is Ashish Dayama from our Mobile Broadband team.