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 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it