China Mobile and Huawei have announced the inaugural demonstration of their first end-to-end (E2E) TD-LTE system operating over the 3.3 GHz to 3.4 GHz frequency band at the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) workshop in Shanghai. This demonstration system was developed with the integration of the Huawei's newly modified commercial 3.5 GHz TD-LTE products, which currently are widely deployed worldwide. It reveals that the industry chain of the spectrum for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) identified by the World Radio-communication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) is maturing.
The most remarkable achievement in spectrum identification for IMT at WRC-15 held in Geneva in November 2015 was establishment of the contiguous 300 MHz C-Band spectrum. Originally, the 3.4 GHz to 3.6 GHz frequency band for IMT was available around the world. After the 3.3 GHz to 3.4 GHz frequency band was identified in 45 countries in regions such as Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific, continuous spectrum was achieved in these countries. This will significantly reduce the spectrum pressure on operators confronted with a huge increase in network traffic. The adoption of the contiguous spectrum allocations and carrier technologies affords operators the capability to provide a better user experience.
Currently, all commercial systems that operate on C-Band incorporate TD-LTE technologies, as the TDD multi-antenna technology improves the spectral efficiency for high frequency bands. Recently, Nigeria, South Africa, and other countries proposed the arrangement of 3.3 GHz to 3.4 GHz for TDD at the WP5D conference. The China Communication Standards Association (CCSA) also actively promotes the research and IMT identification in 3.3 to 3.4 GHz.
GTI is committed to the advancement of consistent C-Band spectrum planning around the world, and the 3.5 GHz Interest Group established in 2013 has quickly accelerated industry chain maturity. More than 40 global operators, with over 60 commercial terminal models, currently integrate commercial and pre-commercial network deployments on the 3.5 GHz band. They will continue to cooperate with global industry partners to promote C-Band TDD-oriented planning and contribute to further implementation at the national level and into the international standardized organization 3GPP specifications.
