Nortel and LG demo enhances CDMA support for emerging LTE networks

Nortel Networks and LG Electronics’ 3GPP data transmission between an LTE and CDMA network proves that Ericcson got what it paid for when it bought Nortel’s wireless unit, say analysts, though this first standards compliant and active transmission will have little impact on Canada’s incumbent CDMA players, Telus Corp and Bell Canada Enterprises. “The purchase by Ericcson of Nortel’s wireless unit now looks like a better deal,” says telecom analyst Amit Kaminer of the Seaboard Group. “Bell and Telus have gone a different way with HSPA infrastructure, but you still have a number of CDMA carriers in the US like Verizon that are doing LTE upgrades.” The demo, conducted in Ottawa, showed that video downloads, web surfing, and VoIP calls can be maintained when a mobile data user moves between LTE and CDMA coverage zones. In effect, it presents CDMA operators with the opportunity to get more life out of their legacy CDMA voice infrastructure. “There will be a long tail for CDMA; it will continue to exist,” says Ronald Gruia, principal analyst and senior consultant for Frost & Sullivan's information communication technologies practice, in conversation with Tech Media Reports. As it stands, LG's new M13 terminal technology is necessary for CDMA network operators who want access to LTE networks. Given that the first LTE roll-outs are expected in early 2010, there should be a healthy demand from carriers with CDMA infrastructure. “LTE will mostly be data on devices like the Rogers Stick,” says Gruia. “Eventually there will be a handset, but the first models will have to support CDMA and LTE. This will be true even when LTE is more widely deployed. This is a progressive, two-to-three year build out.” The Nortel and LG demo was conducted over 700MHz spectrum using LG’s dual-mode CDMA-LTE M13 terminal. The M13 terminal is a test device created with commercial grade components that will form the basis for a consumer device which is expected to be available in 2010. “The 2010 LTE commercial launch for CDMA operators represents a milestone,” Kim In-kyung, VP of 4G development team, LG Electronics Mobile Handset R&D Center, said in a statement. “LG’s new M13 terminal is the result of successful collaboration with Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm. The technology is the key to enabling CDMA network operators an incremental LTE network deployment over a national CDMA network.” “If I were a CDMA network like Horizon, this news would make me very happy,” says Kaminer. “It means you can get ahead of the curve. This decreases the risk of deploying pre-standard LTE.” This is important news for Nortel, and puts Ericsson in a stronger position with Verizon, which is setting the pace with its aggressive plans for an LTE rollout. Key Verizon suppliers are Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Starent and Nokia Siemens. In Canada, Bell and Telus have gone with Nokia Siemens and China's Huawei Technology Co. for an HSPA overlay to get them en route from CDMA to LTE. “This gives people a choice,” Larry Murat, VP of LTE R&D at Nortel, tells Tech Media Reports. “CDMA as a technology for voice subscribers at reasonable prices will be around for some time, and the high speed overlay will allow CDMA providers to offer enhanced services to smart phones or off of USB dongles.” Murat says that the hype around LTE data rates often misses the more important issue of latency, which is where the new standard really shines. “By dropping latency down as low as 20 milliseconds then you have that is as good as or better than a landline, cable, or DSL.” This is major achievement, and was highlighted in the Nortel/LG demo. “We did the hand-off on regular streets during a drive test,” says Murat. “We were at normal velocities and under normal conditions for this kind of transfer, but the demonstration was oriented toward video services.” Murat says that the next steps are to continue to work on optimization, with the goal of having commercially viable infrastructure available later this year – just in time for the first LTE roll outs in early 2010. Given LTE’s data capabilities, Gruia says the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) framework for delivering media over wireless networks, designed as part of the 3GPP evolution of GSM, is quickly being adopted as the way to go. This is true even for big CDMA players like Verizon, which makes Nortel’s hand-off technology all the more valuable. “A lot of service providers see IMS as a two-edged sword,” says Gruia. “On the one side it is good, it flattens the architecture, but on the other hand it opens things up over the top layer, meaning a company like Google Inc. can come in and exploit it.” In effect, with IMS, LTE becomes an open layer wherein third parties can run their own media services and, potentially resulting in the carriers losing some control. In this world CDMA is relegated to being a back-up voice technology that supports LTE data networks through technologies like LG’s CDMA-LTE M13 terminal.

Nortel and LG demo enhances CDMA support for emerging LTE networks

News | 08/30/2009 2:26 pm EDT

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