These demos are also a way for vendors and operators to position themselves as frontrunners, and the emphasis is increasingly shifting to Asia.
SK Telecom and Ericsson have performed the world‘s first demonstration of a core LTE-Advanced technology named Transmission Mode 9 (TM-9), which defines a method of transmission between mobile devices and base stations.
Adopted by the 3GPP in 2011 as part of the standards, it is expected to be important in building HetNets of small cells. These networks will make it imperative to use various technologies to minimize inter-base station interference and enhance network stability.
TM-9 allows base stations to distinguish mobile devices and send different demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) to each one located within the coverage area. In addition, each base station uses its unique channel information reference signal (CSI-RS) to communicate with devices.
This should create an optimal transmission environment for each individual device, ensuring a certain data rate, and increasing base station capacity and efficiency. The development and demonstration of TM-9 began in October 2012 and the resulting demonstration showed that TM-9 was able to increase data rates by 10% to 15% in areas of inter-cell interference.
“Together with CA (carrier aggregation) and eICIC (enhanced inter-cell interference coordination), TM-9 will provide a solid technological basis for maximizing service quality and performance in the LTE-A environment,” said Kang Jong-ryeol, SVP and head of network technology at SK Telecom‘s R&D Center.