LTE-Advanced provides service continuity for early 5G deployments
Verizon is working to bring commercial 5G services to life in between three and five markets by the end of the year. But, at the same time it is investing in the next-generation of cellular, the carrier remains focused on expanding the reach and quality of its LTE-Advanced network.
LTE-Advanced is marked by three primary technologies: carrier aggregation, which allows different spectrum bands to be bonded into a larger data pipe; 4X4 multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO), a flavor of spatial multiplexing that multiplies capacity while using the same level of network resources; and 256 QAM, a modulation scheme.
In previous testing, Verizon aggregated licensed spectrum with the unlicensed 5 GHz band and hit a speed of 953 Gbps. With early 5G deployments limited in scope, carriers around the world are investing in LTE-Advanced, also called gigabit LTE, in an effort to provide a level of service continuity as users move in and out of 5G coverage.
Verizon’s Chief Network Engineers Officer and Head of Wireless Networks Nicola Palmer said the LTE-Advanced expansion is based on “customer-focused planning, disciplined engineering and consistent, strategic investment…”
Earlier this year RCR Wireless News caught up with Palmer during the 5G North America event in Austin, Texas. She discussed the carrier’s plan to use millimeter wave frequencies to provide residential broadband services as its 5G launch.
Palmer explained how fixed sites will also be used to support mobility services. “I think somehow there’s a bit of a perception–you know, maybe inadvertently we created it–that by doing the fixed home broadband network first then following with mobility that they were two distinct things. But it is the same network. There is a small nuance,” she said, noting the basis in the Technical Forum specification but “the minute the NR equipment is available, it gets deployed.”
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