Airspan Networks and SoftBank Mobile have completed its technology trial of Coordinated Multi-Point or IP-CoMP for LTE Small Cells.
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Airspan Networks said the main objective of the technology trial was to demo how 3.5 GHz Band 42 street-based small cells can be integrated into a single radio cluster in order to improve the outdoor and indoor coverage, network capacity and user experience of a rooftop Macro-cell deployment.
Airspan’s CoMP implementation supports both legacy LTE devices and newer LTE advanced User Equipment. The main benefit of Airspan’s CoMP is that it removes edge-of-cell coverage holes and penetrates deep indoors to locations that cannot be reached using typical rooftop Macro cells.
The company said its IP-CoMP deployment operates without the need for CPRI or dark fiber fronthaul, providing the benefits of LTE CoMP operation using conventional Ethernet backhaul.
“The trial showed how this CoMP scheme can extend network coverage and capacity from our planned Band 42 macro LTE base stations way beyond the cell-edge and increase the capacity of existing users in these locations by a factor of three,” said Takashi Tsustui, vice president and director, Technology Strategy, SoftBank Mobile.
