DL - 4G Americas

download speeds of up to 8 Mbps aimed at users who could not access fixed line ADSL or cable Internet
services. There were 85 HSPA+ ready mobile broadband devices announced by December 2010. 10
Smartphones with HSPA+ technology emerged in the first quarter of 2010 with demonstrations at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Powered by Android, the smartphones were to be commercially
available in the third quarter of 2010, and able to support high-speed Internet access faster than existing
3G smartphones. Integrated HSPA+ capabilities would support downlink speeds of up to 14 Mb/s and
allowing users to download a 400 Mb feature-length movie within thirty seconds. T-Mobile broke new
ground launching the first smartphone specifically designed for their new HSPA+ network in September
2010. 11.
Rel-7 HSPA+ networks are sometimes also deployed with MIMO antenna systems providing yet another
upgrade in performance benefits. In July 2009, TIM Italy launched the world’s first HSPA+ network using
MIMO offering peak theoretical download speeds of 28 Mbps. Shortly thereafter, O2 in Germany,
Swisscom in Switzerland and M1 in Singapore also launched HSPA+ services with MIMO. At the end of
2010, there were more than 6 commercial HSPA+ networks with MIMO antenna systems.
Another development by vendors is flat IP base stations, an innovation that integrates key components of
3G mobile networks into a single network element optimized to support UMTS-HSPA data services, and
flattens what is typically a more complex architecture. HSPA+ eases the path to LTE as the two
technologies use the same flat network architecture. As early as February 2007, live demonstrations of
one GTP Tunnel with a flat IP base station showed a flat architecture by extending the one tunnel
approach of the Packet Switched Network to the Radio Access Network consisting of a base station and
single core network node on the user plane. With Direct Tunnel, data packets between the IP-based
Internet and the WCDMA network are tunneled directly from the RNCs to the GGSNs. The SGSN only
establishes the connection and handles location and charging-related tasks – and no longer handles data
traffic between the RNCs and GGSNs. The main benefits are the CAPEX and capacity savings, which, for
example, during a two-year period for operator TeliaSonera, in 2009 amounted to 40 percent. On the
technical side, a full 90 percent of throughput capacity was freed up by bypassing the SGSN with the
Direct Tunnel solution. These benefits would not have materialized if the choice had been to purchase
further SGSN units. Because Direct Tunnel is not a technical network feature that is easily visible, nor is it
often publicly announced, the number of operators that are utilizing direct tunnel is not evident. Direct
Tunnel is a key component of the flat architecture used in the technological evolution to LTE and is
specified by 3GPP. 12 One leading vendor affirmed over 65 Direct Tunnel deployments as early as
November 2009. For more information on Direct Tunnel, 13 the 3G Americas white paper, UMTS Evolution
for Release 7 to Release 8 - HSPA and SAE/LTE.
HSPA Rel-6 mobile broadband equipment supports peak theoretical throughput rates up to 14 Mbps
downlink and up to 5.8 Mbps uplink, capabilities that are typically added to existing networks using a
simple software-only upgrade, which can be downloaded remotely to the UMTS Radio Network Controller
(RNC) and NodeB. Most leading operators are now moving forward with deployment of Rel-7 HSPA+.
Nearly all vendors have existing NodeB modules that are already HSPA+ capable and the activation is
done on a software basis only. This solution is part of a converged RAN strategy with building blocks to
10
Ibid.
11
Introducing the T-Mobile G2 with Google—the First Smartphone Delivering 4G Speeds on T-Mobile’s Super-Fast HSPA+
Network, T-Mobile USA, 9 September 2010.
12
3GPP TS23.060 General Packet Rado Service (GPRS); Service description; Stage 2 (Release 7), section 15.6.
13
UMTS Evolution for Release 7 to Release 8 HSPA and SAE/LTE, 3G Americas, December 2007,
http://www.4gamericas.org/documents/UMTS_Rel-8_White_Paper_12.10.07_final.pdf
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