Vodafone Turkey and Huawei have announced the ‘world first’ verification of a ‘flexible’ spectrum sharing solution between GSM and LTE on Vodafone’s commercial 900MHz network in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Huawei says that its solution, codenamed ‘GL’, enables unprecedented overlap between GSM/LTE to increase both LTE data rates and capacity available in the network operator’s 900MHz spectrum allocation – in the test case increasing the average user throughput by around 58%/44% on downlink/uplink.
Huawei adds that its GL spectrum sharing solution utilises proprietary algorithms to free operators from the restrictions of standard LTE bandwidth, ensuring that scattered spectrum resources are fully utilised for higher data rates and better user experience, whilst by introducing more flexibility in terms of the LTE spectrum usage, sufficient GSM channels are maintained to carry 2G traffic. Malik Rao, CTO at Vodafone Turkey, said: ‘Frequency spectrum resources are extremely valuable. Spectrum allocation is fixed in the traditional refarming solution, which results in low utilisation rate. In comparison, GL spectrum sharing supports more efficient spectrum sharing between GSM and LTE.’
