DOCOMO and Huawei Test LTE in 5 GHz Band

DOCOMO Beijing Communications Laboratories and Huawei have carried out a joint demonstration of LTE deployed over the 5GHz unlicensed spectrum band, which is widely used for wireless LAN networks in many countries today.  The companies have been conducting experiments of Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), a technology that expands LTE-compatible spectrum to unlicensed spectrum bands, thereby providing complementary access for the LTE operator network. Currently, LTE’s compatible spectrum bands are licensed between the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands in Japan.

“We are very pleased to have confirmed that LAA is a viable technology for LTE and future LTE-Advanced,” said Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at NTT DOCOMO. “We aim to contribute to the standardization of this technology, which inherits the highly advanced features of LTE, to further enhance the global user experience with wireless broadband.”

Significantly, the indoor tests found that LAA in 5GHz bandwidth can achieve a cell capacity of approximately 1.6 times greater than that of IEEE 802.11n.

https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2014/0821_00.html