Finland’s Elisa, Ericsson and Qualcomm test uplink carrier aggregation on 5G SA network
With Ericsson and Qualcomm doing the “heavy lifting,” Finland network operator Elisa conducted a live test of uplink carrier aggregation (CA) on its commercial 5G standalone (SA) network. Elisa operates commercial 5G SA networks, starting with its home market of Finland and following it up last year by deploying it in Estonia.
The three partners achieved an upload speed of 230 Mbps in a live 5G network using Uplink Carrier Aggregation. For this test, a 25MHz 2.6 GHz FDD (frequency division duplex) band was combined with a 100MHz 3.5 GHz TDD (time division duplex) band running on a mobile test device powered by Snapdragon® X75 5G Modem-RF System.
Ericsson’s Uplink Carrier Aggregation software combines mid-band FDD and mid-band TDD within the frequency range 1 (FR1), boosting speeds to enable uplink-heavy applications such as live streaming, broadcasts, cloud gaming, extended reality, and video-based use cases.
Uplink-heavy consumer applications on the rise:
According to Ericsson’s most recent Mobility Report, uplink accounted for a modest 8% of total traffic on a sample of four mobile networks analyzed. The applications that generated the largest volume of uplink traffic were personal cloud storage services, followed by comms services and video.
While 8% doesn’t seem like much, Ericsson emphasised that uplink volume is highly context dependent. For instance, there is likely to be more of it at a live event, like a concert or a sporting event, where users enthusiastically film and then share as much action as possible.
A growing amount of data traffic generated today is in the uplink, highlighting the need for new network capabilities to boost uplink speed and capacity and deliver seamless 5G user experience. For instance, concertgoers are recording and streaming videos live on their social media accounts. With fast uplink speeds, they can share their most exciting moments in real-time with friends and family without worrying about lags, congestion, or poor network quality.
In addition to Elisa, Vodafone has also been testing out uplink CA recently, as have Dish, BT and Telefónica.
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Quotes:
Mårten Lerner, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “This latest technology milestone with our partners Elisa and Qualcomm Technologies unlocks high upload speeds in commercial 5G Standalone networks. With this game-changing software capability, we are enabling unparalleled user experience for applications such as live streaming, video conferencing, augmented reality/virtual reality and cloud gaming.”
Sami Rajamäki, Vice President, Network Services, Elisa, says: “We continue as a pioneer of 5G in Finland and develop our network services with our customers’ future needs in mind. The use of augmented reality and development towards metaverse will increase the demand for fast uplink connections. Therefore the top speeds achieved together with Ericsson and Qualcomm are an important step in the development of 5G Standalone network.”
Dino Flore, Vice President, Technology at Qualcomm Europe, Inc. says: “The uplink speed achieved with Elisa and Ericsson is a testament to the breakthrough performance of the Snapdragon X75 5G Modem-RF System. We are excited to see the innovative use cases Elisa can unlock for customers with their 5G Standalone network.”
Ericsson has a robust portfolio of software features that provide a boost in the uplink, and the feature deployed in this demo with Elisa and Qualcomm – FR1 Uplink Carrier Aggregation – became commercially available in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Visit the Ericsson booth in Hall 2 at MWC 2024 in Barcelona to see how a superior uplink performance is being enabled for use cases such as live streaming.
References:
T-Mobile US, Ericsson, and Qualcomm test 5G carrier aggregation with 6 component carriers
Dish Wireless with Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung test simultaneous 5G 2x uplink and 4x downlink carrier aggregation
Ericsson and MediaTek set new 5G uplink speed record using Uplink Carrier Aggregation
BT tests 4CC Carrier Aggregation over a standalone 5G network using Nokia equipment