day 2-t8-1730 chalkiotis-konstantinos-20120524

May 24th, 2012

Overcoming the challenge of providing LTE over extensive land masses

Dr. Konstantinos Halkiotis, Principal Engineer

Access & Transmission Network Dept. Cosmote S.A.

GROUP

Contents

• Company Profile

• Choosing the right frequency for the geography. Will 1.8GHz

ever be the universal frequency of choice?

• Countries that have access to 1800 MHZ spectrum will they

use it for LTE?

• Device Availability for LTE

• Evaluating Cosmote's LTE trial – what is the behaviour of the network when providing LTE to island territories?

• Conclusions

A pioneer & market leader on all fronts

A pioneer & market leader on all fronts

Company Profile Presentation 1996: Cosmote was founded from Greek PTT (OTE)

1998: Commercial Operation for GSM network

2001: Cosmote becomes the Leader Mobile Operator in Greece

2004: UMTS network Commercial Launch (June 2004)

2004: UMTS Services during 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens (1st operator

worldwide who provided UMTS services in Olympics)

2006: HSDPA commercial Launch (June 2006)

2006: Commercial Launch of Globul’s UMTS/HSPA network

2007: HSPA Phase 2 (March 2007)

2008: HSPA Phase 3 (7,2 Mbps DL, 1,45 Mbps UL)

2009: HSPA+ introduction (21,6 Mbps DL, 5,76 Mbps UL)

2011: HSPA+ phase 3 (42,2 Mbps, 11,5 Mbps UL)

2011: LTE trial network in urban and rural areas

Cosmote Group provides GSM services in:

• Greece (Cosmote) (in operation since 1998)

• Albania (AMC) (in operation from 2001)

• Bulgaria (Globul) (in operation from 2001) and

• Romania (Cosmote Romania) (in operation from 2005)

Cosmote Group has more than 22 million customers

Cosmote’s Group GSM/GPRS Networks

Cosmote Group UMTS Networks

• Cosmote provides UMTS services in Greece (since 2004), Bulgaria (Globul)

since 2006 and Romania (since 2010).

• Cosmote Group provided HSPA+ services in Greece (42 Mbps DL / 11,6 Mbps

UL) and Bulgaria (42 Mbps UL / 5,76 Mbps DL).

• Cosmote Group is providing UMTS services (including HSPA+) in Romania

since 2010

Spectrum remain the main industry bottleneck Frequency risks and opportunities

2 x 75 MHz

2 x 35 MHz

2 x 60 MHz

2 x 30 MHz

2 x 70 MHz capacity bands (2 x 205 MHz)

coverage bands (2 x 65 MHz)

further bands like 450 MHz currently not considered in

3GPP standardisation

European FDD bands for mobile use

Band Bandwidth

2600

2100

1800

900

800

•Network deployments are highly dependent on national spectrum auctions

•Opportunities in re-farming become more attractive – e.g. 1800MHz as best compromise between coverage and capacity to rollout Broadband technologies (LTE or HSPA depending on local situation)

•An initiative currently supported by

•Global band for LTE is needed (Digital Dividend 2?)

Coverage vs Capacity Spectrum Bands for LTE

2 x 70 MHz 2600 MHz

2 x 60 MHz 2100 MHz

2 x 75 MHz 1800 MHZ

2 x 35 MHz 900 MHz

2 x 30 MHz 800 MHz

Available Spectrum

3GPP Standardized European FDD bands

Coverage bands

Capacity bands

1800 MHz seems to be the most suitable band for LTE technology in terms of coverage and capacity Plenty of 1800 MHz spectrum in Europe is not awarded to operators Bands below 1GHz has been standardized mainly as coverage bands in rural areas Is there any possibility to offer coverage over seas and islands by using alternative bands (e.g. 1800MHz)?

Will 1.8GHz ever be the universal frequency of choice?

Mobile Operators are currently running 1800 MHz band as GSM capacity Layer

Can operators move traffic out of 1800 MHz band and use it for LTE instead?

Operators could move traffic from 1800 MHz to 900 MHz by investing

CAPEX and additionally use special features (AMR HR, VAMOS, OSC) in

order to increase capacity while at the same time reduce 1800

spectrum usage

New GSM network design required. MSR/SDR radio technology could

assist to smooth transition towards LTE

Refarming is essential in order to use 1800 MHz spectrum for LTE

In addition 1800 MHz spectrum not awarded should be awarded to mobile operators immediately

Is the 800 MHz spectrum much better than 1800 MHz in rural areas?

Link budget calculations shows that LTE 800 MHz have 4-5 dB improved

coverage compared to LTE 1800 MHz

LTE 800 Linkbudget

General

Frequency Band MHz 800

Channel Bandwith MHz 10

available ressource blocks value 50

Uplink Downlink

Antenna Configuration 1T2R-RXDiv Antenna Configuration 2T2R-TXDiv

Network Load % 50 % Network Load % 50 %

Carrier Frequency MHz 850 Carrier Frequency MHz 810

Desired User datarate

(RLC) kbps 2048

Desired User Datarate

(RLC) kbps 4000

Protocol overhead % 14% Protocol overhead % 21%

L1 datarate kbps 2389 L1 datarate kbps 5091

Max pathloss unloaded dBm 130,5 Max pathloss unloaded dBm 153,1

Interference Margin dB 1,8 Interference Margin dB 9,5

Max Isotropic pathloss dB 128,7 Max Isotropic pathloss dB 143,5

Body loss dB 1,0 Body loss dB 1,0

Dense Urban Dense Urban

Cell radius km 0,12 Cell radius km 0,34

intersite distance km 0,21 intersite distance km 0,59

Urban Urban



Suburban Suburban



Rural Rural



LTE 1800 Linkbudget

General

Frequency Band MHz 1800

Channel Bandwith MHz 10

available ressource

blocks value 50

Uplink Downlink Antenna Configuration 1T2R-RXDiv Antenna Configuration 2T2R-TXDiv

Network Load % 50 % Network Load % 50 %

Carrier Frequency MHz 1750 Carrier Frequency MHz 1845

Desired User datarate

(RLC) kbps 2048

Desired User Datarate

(RLC) kbps 4000

Max pathloss

unloaded dBm 135,5

Max pathloss

unloaded dBm 157,1

Interference Margin dB 1,8 Interference Margin dB 9,5

Max Isotropic pathloss dB 133,7

Max Isotropic

pathloss dB 147,5

Body loss dB 1,0 Body loss dB 1,0

Dense Urban Dense Urban



Urban Urban



Suburban Suburban



Rural Rural



Is the 1800 MHz spectrum much better than 2.6 GHz in rural areas?

Link budget calculations and actual measurements shows that LTE 1800 MHz

have 3-4 dB improved coverage compared to LTE 2600 MHz

LTE 1800MHz

LTE 2600MHz

Which is the most appropriate spectrum band to cover rural areas with LTE?

LTE 800MHz LTE 2600MHz LTE 1800MHz

Pros: •Better propagation due to lower frequency

Cons: •New network layer needed (antennas, enode Bs, etc.) •Smart phones will not support this frequency band in the early stage •Interference controlling is difficult •Capacity per cell will be limited (bigger cells – more users)

Pros: •Antenna system readiness

•Reuse of power amplifiers (in case of Single RAN)

•Terminals already available

•Network grid already deployed (as GSM layer)

•Bands seems promising on providing Rural LTE coverage

Cons: •Refarming in GSM layer is needed •Coverage will be reduced compared to 800 MHz layer •Possible interference with GSM needed to be controlled

Pros: •New frequency band and no interference is expected •Terminals already available

Cons: •Coverage will be reduced compared to 800 and 1800 MHz bands •New antenna systems are needed •Huge CAPEX and OPEX investments in infrastructure to provide rural coverage •Poor indoor coverage

Device Availability for LTE

LTE terminals operating at 1800

MHZ and 2600 MHz are already in

the market

•USB sticks (Already Available)

•Smart phones (expected late 2012

– early 2013)

Evaluating Cosmote's LTE trial – what is the behaviour of the network when providing LTE to island territories?

Cosmote LTE Trial was deployed in 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands in

order to evaluate the ability providing LTE coverage over sea and island

territories

Cosmote Group in Cooperation with Deutsche Telekom and Huawei

launched LTE trial at 2600 and 1800 MHz, evaluating Extended cell

functionality (LTE coverage over 60 km evaluated)

Cosmote LTE Trial Network Architecture

Evolved Packet Core

LTE

HSS

eNodeB S1-U

S5/S8

S1-MME

S6a

S11

SGi

S10

User plane Control plane

MME

S-GW

EUTRAN

PDN GW Internet

FTP/HTTP VOD

Application Servers in LAB

COSMOTE IP

Backbone

LTE UE

LTE Radio Sites

Core Site

Core Site

Core Site

IP Microwave Connectivity

Supplier Equipment

Radio Sites (eRAN 2.0): DBS3900 (V100R001C01SPC210) Evolved Packet Core (SAE 1.1): MME: USN9810 (V900R001C02SPC102) S-GW&PDN-GW: UGW9811 (V900R001ENGC02SPC200) HSS: SAE-HSS9812 (V900R006C01SPC100) Application Servers IP Microwaves

Test Spectrum

Max Bandwidth : 10 - 20MHz Spectrum Band : 2,6 GHz 1.8GHz

Trial Devices Huawei E398

Live Trial Results from Cosmote’s LTE 1800 -2600 MHz trial

Field trial was taken place in rural site shooting over the sea

(Corinthian Gulf) (extended cell functionality testing) and some

island territories

Also coverage over the land was tested (due to the geography

of the area)

LTE 1800 MHz Extended Cell Scope:

To examine the possibility to achieve a bit rate >100 Mbps at a distance at least 100km from the e-NodeB. Site chosen shooting over the sea at

elevation 1332m

LTE 1800 MHz Extended Cell

Channel Bandwidth Distance (km)

DL Throughput

(Mbps)

UL Throughput

(Mbps)

Latency (ms)

20 MHz 102 135 59 11

10 MHz 102 71 29 10

5 MHz 102 29,1 14,6 10

LTE 2600 MHz Extended Cell

Channel Bandwidth Distance (km)

DL Throughput

(Mbps)

UL Throughput

(Mbps)

Latency (ms)

20 MHz 102 12,56 3,65 11

10 MHz 102 7,17 2,3

12

5 MHz 102 2,85 1,45 12

GSM 1800 MHz / LTE 1800 MHz Lab Tests

Conclusions

LTE could provide coverage over seas and

islands by the appropriate design and frequency

selection

Compared to other tested bands (2600 MHz) 1800 MHz band seems to be the

most appropriate for mobile LTE

Effort is needed to move existing GSM traffic in order to free spectrum for LTE

LTE can support services even in large distances (over sea and islands)

Technology is ready for commercial service

THANK YOU FOR

YOUR ATTENTION

Contact Information:

Dr. Konstantinos Halkiotis

Access & Transmission Netw. Dept.

Kifisias 95-97, 15124, Athens,

Greece

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel. +302106374640

mailto:[email protected]

day 2-t8-1730 chalkiotis-konstantinos-20120524

Business