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The EASY-C (Enablers for Ambient Services and Systems – Part C: Wide
Area Coverage) researchers have demonstrated future mobile technology
based on LTE Advanced live in operation at the 2009 IEEE International
Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC 2009). Their test installations
in Dresden and Berlin provide facilities for where innovative
technologies for mobile communication can be implemented and tested
under real-life radio signal propagation conditions.
The 2009 IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC
2009), the annual flagship event sponsored by the IEEE Communications
Society (IEEE ComSoc), is dedicated to furthering the discussion of the
latest technical and business issues in communications and networking.
For the first time, attendees witnessed future mobile technology live
in operation at the EASY-C exhibit. EASY-C (abbreviation stands for
"Enablers for Ambient Services and Systems – Part C: Wide
Area Coverage") researchers have been working for the last two years on
technologies for LTE Advanced. Both in Dresden and Berlin, they have
two large-scale test installations re-using existing cell sites, where
innovative technologies for mobile communication can be implemented and
tested
under real-life radio signal propagation conditions. New approaches
include cooperative communication – currently hotly debated among
experts -, but also alternative communication scenarios where
additional low-cost, low power consumption relays are being employed to
improve coverage and spectral efficiency of mobile communication
systems.
The EASY-C test installations also allow precise determination of net
improvements of different cooperation models. This improvement is then
set in relation to the additional overhead incurred by using them, i.e.
through additional technological complexity or higher requirements on
time and frequency synchronization. In addition the project studies and
evaluates other topics under discussion within the LTE-Advanced
initiative, like MIMO, cooperative radio resource management and
self-optimizing networks.
Other highlights included the Tuesday afternoon keynote address from Siegmund Redl of Qualcomm
Europe, who spoke on “Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies
for Consumer Devices – A Core Technology Provider Perspective.”
According to Redl, “3G is reality today, but there are numerous
challenges facing its proliferation such as heterogeneous radio access
networks and deployment scenarios as well as the availability of
sufficient spectrum.”
In response, Redl stated that Qualcomm is deeply committed to
supporting HSPA and LTE in addition to investing heavily in research
and development. Thus far, ongoing results have already yielded cost
reductions related to the scaled increase in the number of 3G devices.
For example, according to Redl “the cost of a 3G handset has decreased
from several hundreds of dollars to roughly 58 dollars for the lowest
cost device.”
Botaro Hirosaki, senior executive vice president of NEC Corporation,
then addressed conference attendees on the “New Role of ICT -The
Paradigm Shift of C&C Technologies” during the Wednesday keynote
session. He confirmed Redl’s observation on 3G by stating that “in
Japan already 99.6 percent of the country’s mobile phone users are now
on 3G.” Hirosaki continued “we are in the midst of an evolution of
communication: web communications are now making it possible to share
emotions online. The paradigm shift to ICT services is offering the
potential to change industrial structure, while cloud computing offers
the best technological resource to disseminate information at the
minimum cost.
“But, we must not forget the importance of energy savings and
reductions. The environment has become a critical factor. For instance,
the NEC “Real IT Cool Project,” which was awarded the Green
IT Award from the Japanese government in 2008, has set the goal of
reducing IT system power consumption by 50 percent by 2012. The NEC
vision is to realize an information society that is friendly to humans
and the earth and uses C&C to improve quality of life.”
Later that morning at the executive panel dedicated to “3G to 4G: Full Mobility of IP Services,” Peter
Meissner, operating officer of the NGMN Alliance proclaimed that “next
generation mobile networks are real. Devices are coming in time for the
launch in 2010!”
The conference will conclude on Thursday, June 18th with a full day of
workshops and tutorials. This includes four tutorials dedicated to
channel coding, network economics, wireless Internet and implementation
issues as well as five workshops presented on green communications, LTE
evolution organizers, public safety communications, the network of the
future and synergies in communications and localization.
The IEEE Communications Society has nearly 40,000 members and is the
second largest of IEEE’s 37 technical societies. Founded in 1952, it
has become the major international forum for the exchange of ideas on
communications and information networking.
For questions, please email
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